The Tempest
by Blazil
Summary: After the forced exile of the RDA, humankind has regrouped. They have become more fanatical than ever. They are already approaching Pandora, and are aiming to ensure a bright future for all of humanity. On Pandora, an exiled Na'vi seeress experiences a vision of a dark force looming over her world. However, the Sky People only seem to be pawns of a greater, more elusive force.
1. Operation Hawkeye

**The story you are about to read is a remake/reboot of one of my earlier stories, which was also titled "The Tempest". Here, I will reuse some elements from my other Avatar story "The Invasion", although in no way is this new version of "The Tempest" going to be a sequel to that first story. "The Tempest" is a sequel only to the movie Avatar.**

 **I will deliberately go into certain directions and explore certain themes with this story that I think the future movies are unlikely to visit.**

 **This story will be strongly human-centered in the first chapters, but my aim is to take on a more balanced approach between the human and Na'vi sides later on. The main characters will be mostly original, with canon characters on the sidelines. This is a personal preference, because for me it is easier to write original characters which flow from my own heart and mind, instead of trying to figure out what was going on in the minds of other writers.**

 **I had to select one or two genres, but I do not believe "Sci-Fi/Adventure" really covers every aspect I am planning to write. There will also be elements of humor, drama, romance and mystery. Enjoy reading!**

* * *

 **Prologue**

Ever since the defeat and forced exile of the RDA, the moon known as Pandora had been free. However, not everyone on the moon believed that humanity's attempts at controlling and exploiting Pandora's unique geosphere and biosphere had ended with this defeat.

The RDA on Pandora had been a tiny organization compared to humanity's total population numbers in the Sol system. Although the RDA had a vast amount of resources and manpower at their disposal back in humanity's home system, they had still been limited by technology, and restricted by laws. Shareholder views and public opinions also drove the decision-making process of the company executives. And all these factors combined had ultimately led to disaster.

After word of the RDA's forced exile had reached Earth, the RDA's already waning popular support had taken a deep plunge. Not only had this event been a blow to humanity's overall pride; it also meant there were going to be dire consequences from an economical perspective. The Earth, its moon, Mars, and several of the colonized Jovian moons had grown dependent upon the room-temperature superconductor material UNOB-1, also known informally as Unobtanium.

The economic depression caused a snowball effect. Formerly prosperous regions descended into chaos. For a time, it seemed as if every person had to fight for his own well-being. Religious and ecological radicals took control to carve out their own states. It seemed as if humanity was on a path towards self-destruction.

Fortunately, this period was short-lived, for there was one movement that did not discriminate any human on any aspect, as long as they were willing to devote their lives to the greater good. Though the movement initially became infamous for its use of military force, its Leader justified their strategy as being a necessary measure against all who used violence in the name of their selfish goals.

Eventually, similar groups were formed all over the Earth, who pledged their alliance to the first movement. Like a tempest, the new militant humanism movement spread, until the complete Earth was under their control. Though political similarities with twentieth century history were noted by critics, the majority of the populace was convinced that the Leader was humanity's savior. The movement had gained too much followers to be stopped.

The first movement became known as the First Tempest, later shortened to just the Tempest. Once his power over the Earth was solidified, the Leader directed his organization to focus on creating a stronger and more disciplined humanity than had ever existed in history.

The Tempest also usurped the RDA's space empire, and immediately starting planning a large scale campaign to retake control of Pandora, just as the Leader had promised.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Operation Hawkeye**

A black-hulled interstellar vessel had appeared in the vicinity of the brightly blue colored planet Polyphemus. Nearby was its most prominent moon: the blue and green world of Pandora. The vessel was nearly invisible against the blackness of space. Nevertheless, an observer could have visually followed its movements, due to the large insignia on its hull. It consisted of a white circle, with a black dot in the center, which was surrounded by four black rune-like lightning sparks. Thus it appeared as if a single large Tempest logo was moving towards the moon.

The interstellar vessel was a refurbished former RDA vessel. Apart from its changed color-scheme, its general design had been unchanged. It was carrying two black-hulled shuttles, one slightly larger than the other.

Inside the bay of the largest shuttle, a group of people were strapped into seats, which were divided into two rows opposite each-other. The people were all wearing black military uniforms. Classical music was playing in the background. The most senior officer aboard was assault unit leader Lockwood. His rank was made visible by the domino-like patch on his jacket collar. It displayed four white dots on a black square. Lockwood, who had a large bald and tanned head, was calmly reading a book, while his troops were also taking it easy. The book was titled "Humanity's New Generation" and was written by an author known by the mononym "Wilhelmus". Lockwood momentarily looked up from the pages. As he had expected, the jump light was still red. They had not yet entered the atmosphere, so there was absolutely no need to rush things.

In the corner which was the furthest away from Lockwood, two troops were observing the rest of the group. One was a short, stocky, but broad-shouldered man with curly hair and a grumpy facial expression. The other was a lean and skinny man with a buzz cut. Despite the second man's gaunt, skull-like face, he had a very optimistic expression on his face. Both troops had a single white dot on a black square as their rank insignias, indicating that they were both junior squad leaders.

There were more seats in the shuttle than there were troops, so several seats had been left un-occupied. The two troops in the corner had two empty seats beside them and in front of them, so it made them somewhat stand out, as if they did not belong to the group. However, they were far from the only oddballs here, at least according to their own opinions.

"Look at those crappy cards." Ralf said grumpily, while making a quick nod towards the group of troops who were playing a card game. "They are all cracked and frayed. No-one even bothered to bring a decent deck. For all we know, we could be by ourselves for months."

"Who cares about cards anyway?" Charlie responded optimistically. "I'd much rather look at her." Charlie now pointed his finger at Astrid, the tall and pale blond woman who was seated nearest to them in the opposite row. She had her eyes closed, and appeared to be sleeping. "Have you ever seen such beauty in such an unlikely place?" he asked Ralf.

"Oh, please", Ralf responded. "You don't know her story, but I do. It's only beauty on the outside. The inside is rotten. Don't tell me you haven't noticed anything strange about her?"

Charlie had to think for a while. However, before he could respond, Ralf did. "Haven't you seen that although she might be sleeping, she's actually sleeping with an axe? A bloody axe!". Charlie shook his head. "The axe is clean; I don't see what the problem is."

"It's a figure of speech, you half-wit!" Ralf bellowed angrily. At the same time, he also dope slapped Charlie on the back of the latter's head.

"What's your problem, man?!" Charlie responded, sounding agitated. "My shrink told me I don't have to take crap from you!"

"My problem is that you shouldn't be staring at some woman, who would bring an axe this far into space and hold it while she is sleeping." Ralf tried to explain to him. "She has killed more men than you can count." Then, he shifted the tone of his voice to a more serious sounding one. "Perhaps what I'm actually trying to say is that all of the people in this room have done something to deserve to be here, us included."

Charlie was intrigued, and didn't seem agitated anymore. "What do you mean?" he asked. At the same time, a muffled mechanical clanking sound could be heard, which indicated that the shuttle they were on, had detached from the interstellar vessel.

"Everyone here is a killer. And all of them are good at it. Some of them might even have been considered heroes at one time. But that doesn't change the fact that they're killers. They are good at what they do, but no-one will miss them when they're gone." Ralf replied steadily.

"Take her, for example." Ralf made another quick nod, this time towards Yijun, a small Asian woman, who was laughing at the antics of the group of card players. "She doesn't look like she has ever fired a gun in her life. But I know she's here because of her marksmanship skills. I heard she once sniped fifty enemies on a snowy day in some mountains somewhere. Fifty, without hesitation!"

Charlie still didn't get what Ralf was trying to say. "So, are you saying we ourselves are evil? For popping all those troops of the eco-union, I mean?"

Ralf held a short monologue. "Don't be silly, there is no such thing as good or evil. We did what we had to, for the future of all of humanity. And apparently they found us so effective at what we do, that we were hand-picked for this mission. One mission that is more important than anything else we have done so far."

Startled by an unexplained noise, Ralf and Charlie suddenly looked up to see that Astrid, the woman with the axe, was slowly clapping her hands at them. Ralf's face turned slightly white. Charlie was more amused than shocked.

"No need to worry, fellows", she said with a smirk. "You two are only numbers 203 and 204 on my hit list. You amuse me enough that I will probably keep my axe from flying at you for today. Probably."

"Right…" Ralf replied, when he finally mustered enough courage to talk again. He then turned to face Charlie and lowered his voice. "I suggest a new tactic: you shut up, and you don't look at anybody."

"You're the one who talks the most." Charlie countered. "So you're the one who should shut up." This remark set off a contest of sorts in which Ralf and Charlie told each other to shut up repeatedly, with ever increasing volume and bombastic reasons being given. They did not notice that the shuttle had already entered the atmosphere. Only when they finally heard the stern voice of assault unit leader Lockwood, were they brought back to reality.

"Troops! We have a yellow light! You know the drill! This is why we are here! This is why you have been sleeping for six years!"

The shuttle had already slowed down significantly. All troops began removing themselves from their seat's safety harnesses, and began packing up all their gear: their helmets, breathing masks, weapons, and other tools required for the mission. Lockwood himself was the first one to be ready. He was also the first one in the line-up who would jump from the shuttle when the indication light would turn green.

To the side of the shuttle's rear cargo door, there was a small altar of sorts. A large rectangular painting hung on the wall. It had a gold-plated frame, and was illuminated with two weak orange lights. The lights were meant to function as safe placeholders for candles. The painting depicted the face of an older man. The man had short white hair on his head, white and curly sideburns hanging down from the sides of his face, bushy white eyebrows, and a large and white walrus-like mustache. The face itself was plain in shape and features, but the bright blue eyes really stood out.

Lockwood checked his wrist display, before closing his eyes momentarily. He began to whisper some words into the direction of the portrait. "My Leader, I know you have faith in my troops and me. We will not let you down. I will do everything in my power to ensure a glorious future for humanity. _Hominum summa_."

He opened his eyes, and checked his wrist display again. It was clear that they were almost where they needed to be. "Masks on!" he shouted. A few seconds later, he did a double finger tap onto a special area on the screen.

Not long after, the rear bay door of the shuttle opened itself. The outside air rushed in quickly. It was hot and humid, but the troops could hardly notice this, due to the completely sealing uniforms they were wearing. Aside from the inrush of air, an inrush of light also occurred. The shuttle had no windows and was poorly lit in comparison to the outside. It was clear that it was midday here at this particular place on Pandora. Lockwood's visor automatically darkened itself accordingly.

Lockwood then turned around to face his troops, who were all lined up behind him. All twelve looked at him through their slightly darkened visors. "Remember, the target area has a diameter of roughly 100 meters. Your computers have already locked onto the area. If you fail to land on target, or fall off for whatever reason, you will be on your own for days if not weeks." he told them sternly through his helmet radio. What he was saying was nothing new; everybody knew the mission parameters. Lockwood felt it necessary to remind them yet again, because it really was true that there was no way to get back up to the target area, once someone fell off. Falling off meant that person would very likely end up dead, but it wouldn't necessarily be the fall that would kill them.

Down below, a multitude of grey rocks partly covered with green foliage were visible. However, these were no ordinary rocks. These rocks were floating in the air. This was not far from the area in which the RDA had been defeated almost nine years ago.

The troops waited for a few more seconds, until the jump light suddenly turned green and a buzzer went off. Lockwood then gave a final rallying cry. "Come with me, and get the final puzzle piece!" Halfway the sentence, he jumped from the shuttle, and soared towards the Pandoran surface. The others followed him in rapid succession. Ralf and Charlie were last ones to jump; Charlie went second to last, followed by Ralf. Both jumped out screaming at the top of their lungs, but not because of fear. They were excited to finally get the chance to do what they had come here to do. They wanted to be feared themselves.

The thirteen soldiers soared towards the target, which was located on one of the floating rocks near the edge of the area. Lockwood visually scanned his surroundings. There was nothing that indicated that anyone knew they were coming. Then again, there was no way to be sure. This scenario had been simulated many times, but the unknown factors had always been the native population and the biosphere responsiveness.

It had been deemed highly improbable that the squad would be attacked immediately upon arriving here. Sure, someone might have seen the shuttle approaching, but the troops had been dropped from a high enough altitude that it would be difficult for any native to determine where they were going or what had even been dropped. The plan was to get the package, and be picked up by the shuttle, all in under fifteen minutes. Even if they had been spotted, they would likely be gone already before an intercepting force could arrive at the target area.

Soon, they were close enough for parachute deployment. Assault unit leader Lockwood was the first to land on the target area. All twelve others followed his example shortly, and without any major problems. After shedding their parachutes, the uniforms of the troops automatically adapted their coloring to generate a suitable camouflage pattern for the terrain type: in this case a patchwork of grey, brown, and light green.

"Keep your eyes open! We'll be sitting ducks for the next 10 minutes!" Lockwood shouted through his helmet radio. "Joseph! Retrieve the package, now! Johan, Mario, go with him! The rest, form a defensive circle around them, I want nothing getting through! Shoot anything that moves within 150 meters from the perimeter."

"Alright then." said Ralf, while cracking his knuckles. "Let's see what we have." He took his machinegun from the side of his backpack and prepared to take a defensive position. "We have rocks covered in bird shit over there. Some more in that direction. Some small bushes, roots and vines on the ground, some of that stuff on the other floating rocks. What a shithole! Only a bloody ape would live here."

"We've got multiple bogeys at four o'clock." one of the soldiers informed the squad over the radio. "Distance is 200 meters and closing in." The soldiers nearest to the four o'clock direction prepared to fire their weapons, while the rest of the squad focused on watching the other directions.

"Well, it's about time." Ralf said to himself, while visually locating the bogeys. "Time to eat lead, you big ugly sons of bitches!"

Ralf, Charlie, and several other soldiers opened fire on the flock of mountain banshees. Ralf fired his triple barreled, belt-fed machine gun from a crouching position. Charlie had decided to remain standing, while firing his drum-magazine-fed assault rifle.

While the squad protected the inside of the circle, the payload specialist Joseph did his job like an efficient machine. First, he located the exact position of the package, using a handheld scanner device. Once he was standing on top of the location of the package, he knelt down and removed his backpack to take out another device.

"Please, get the harness and hold it in position." Joseph said in an almost eerily calm, collected, and slightly monotone manner. Johan and Mario, the soldiers assigned to protect him, did as he asked. Joseph then activated the device from the backpack. He held it with both hands, as he slowly moved it over the ground. The device made a steady buzzing sound, and emitted light from its underside. The ground was unusually smooth here, which made moving the device over the ground relatively easy.

Soon, Joseph had drawn a full circle. It appeared that the device had drawn a black line on the ground, but a closer look revealed that it was actually a laser cut. Joseph then used a specialized lever tool to loosen the package. Once it was loose, it started floating upward like a helium balloon. It had completely left the ground by the time it was caught by the harness. It was a cone of almost pure UNOB-1. The cone had a length and diameter of approximately one meter. "The package has been collected. Repeat, the package has been collected." Joseph informed the squad over the radio.

"Good work." Lockwood responded slightly relieved. "Hold it steady. The shuttle is already on its way back."

Meanwhile, the squad was still firing at the bogeys. The flock of mountain banshees had been thinned considerably. Many had started falling to the ground. Some were fleeing. However, a few had become agitated enough to dare an attack. Ralf ran out of ammo when three of them were still charging at the squad.

"Shit! Charlie, I need to reload. Cover for me!" Ralf shouted over the radio. Charlie continued to fire his rounds into the remaining banshees. The first one went down, as did the second one. The last one was now only about ten meters away from Ralf. Charlie was too late.

The last banshee was suddenly hit in one of its eyes by what initially appeared to be a stray bullet. Both men wondered what had happened, but it quickly became apparent.

"Die, you fucking fuck!" the smallest squad member Yijun yelled at the top of her lungs. She was still looking through the scope of her sniper rifle. Ralf and Charlie looked at her momentarily, and then looked at each other. Both had an impressed expression on their faces.

"Couldn't have said it better myself!" Ralf responded enthusiastically. He then waved to Charlie. "Come on, we're not there yet."

Out of nowhere, Charlie was suddenly snatched up by a large beak and thrown into the air. Someone had executed a sneak attack. Apparently, a banshee had dived down from the clouds in an almost vertical line. This was no regular wild banshee, though. It was being ridden by one of the indigenous humanoid population: a Na'vi.

Charlie fell over the edge of the rock whilst screaming. Ralf couldn't believe what was happening. "Charlie! CHARLIE!" he shouted desperately. He started firing his machinegun wildly at the banshee. It was too close, however. He was knocked aside by its claws, and started rolling towards the edge.

Just when he was about to go over, he managed to grab hold of a vine and quickly climbed back up. He braced himself for a moment, expecting to be attacked again. Instead, he saw an axe flying past him. It buried itself into the neck of the banshee, making it screech loudly and writhe in agony. One of the soldiers, the tallest one, now ran and leapt into the direction of the banshee. Ralf knew that only Astrid, the owner of the axe, was crazy enough to even attempt such a thing. She immediately collided with the Na'vi rider, and they were both sent falling off the edge.

By this time, the other soldiers had opened fire on the screeching banshee that still remained. Ralf could see that despite its wounds, it was trying to get away. Unfortunately, it seemed to want to go straight through him. There was too little time to move aside, thus he braced himself again, although he did not expect it would help much.

The next series of events happened so rapidly, that Ralf barely registered them. The banshee hit him, but somehow he managed to grab hold of its neck. They went over the edge, but the banshee was too wounded to fly normally. Instead, it started tumbling like a plane that had been shot down. The sky and the ground were spinning. At one point, Ralf was swung onto the banshees back, allowing him to retighten his grip on its neck.

Despite its wounds, and despite the fact that it was falling out of the sky, the banshee tried to remove Ralf's grip. He was too small to be within the reach of its mouth and claws, though. The ground appeared to come closer every second. All Ralf could think of right now, was that he hoped to be remembered as having scored a draw in a one-on-one wrestling match with a banshee.

Soon, Ralf and the banshee began hitting the first tree branches. Most of these broke, thus helping to slow down their descent significantly. Eventually, they came to a sudden stop with a loud thud as they crashed into the solid ground.


	2. The world of shadows

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: The world of shadows**

Only the sounds of the rainforest could be heard. The chirping of insects, the rustling of leaves in the wind, the occasional call of a small tree animal; all of these added to a background noise which seemed to go on forever. One could say that the nervous back-and-forth pacing of one particular Na'vi added another layer to this noise.

Right now, Elynin found it most difficult to stand still in one place. She wasn't feeling well at all. She had been pacing up and down between her altar against a rock wall, and the base of the nearest tree. It was difficult for her to remember when she had started doing this. Maybe she had started this morning, or maybe just now. Although she knew it couldn't be true, time did not seem to flow right for her anymore. Or maybe she had problems with her memories. Whatever the case was, she couldn't talk to anyone about it, or ask anyone to help her. She was completely alone.

Elynin was a young adult Na'vi. Physically, she looked a lot like any other fit young hunter would look, except perhaps her hair and the tired look on her face. Apart from the braid surrounding her queue, she had her hair loose. Her unkempt and messy hairdo, which had some twigs stuck in it, gave the impression that she spent little time caring about her personal appearance. She wore a simple loincloth, and minimal jewelry. The jewelry she did wear only consisted of a necklace with several bright orange colored gemstones.

Her altar, which had been constructed against the nearby rock wall, contained many more trinkets, though. Several hanging woven constructions occasionally moved in the wind. There were jars full of gathered plant and animal materials stacked up until almost waist height. Right in front the stack of jars, there was an unusual tree root exposed. Most tree roots in the forest had a dull brown to green color. This one was glowing purple, even though it was midday, and while the altar was reasonably well lit by the light of the sun.

Elynin realized she was feeling exhausted. Did she sleep last night? Or had that been the night before that? Anyhow, perhaps she should take a rest, but she couldn't stand still. Then she suddenly remembered why she was pacing: she wanted to ask her one more time. Unfortunately, the last time she had tried, it had left her in agony. She had no idea why this was happening. She had no idea why she was being abandoned by her.

She now walked back to her altar, knelt down facing the glowing root, closed her eyes, and whispered something in her native language. " _Eywa, please tell me. Tell me what I have done wrong. I have nothing but love for you, for my people, for my world._ " Elynin was almost in tears. " _If you cast me away, like my people already have, I might drink something to go to sleep and never wake up._ "

With a slightly shaky hand, she took the end of her queue and held it near the orange glow, waiting for the tendrils to connect. Once, they had, she felt slightly better. It convinced her that Eywa had not abandoned her just yet. But then the feeling quickly disappeared. A sense of dread came over her, and she felt her heart sink. Next, a sudden pain shot through her entire body. It made her arch her back and almost caused her to fall over. Then she could see.

She could see a grassy plain. It had to be a long way from the rainforest. There was a strong wind, as the long grass was being blown into one direction. The sky was dark, but it wasn't a clear night. There was mist, a lot of it, which had a pale greenish teal color. It was not something she had seen before, or ever heard of. It looked quite unnatural to her.

The next thing she could see was a figure out in the mist. It had the shape of a person, a person who was walking towards her. Once the person was close enough to see details, she was startled. It was a Tawtute, a human, or at least partially. She remembered what humans looked like, because she had seen some in her childhood. But this was an abomination. The person looked relatively normal except for one important thing. It was a tall pale-skinned human with a broad-shouldered physique. He had white hair and bright blue eyes. This would all be relatively fine, as far as human appearances went; only this person's head was upside down on his neck. His forehead and eyes were near his neck, and his mouth and jaw on the top of his head. It was a disturbing sight to see.

The scene was interrupted by a bright flash of light. The ground shook and the sky turned white. There was a beam of some kind visible, which reached from the ground up into the sky. Next, she was floating in blackness. A ring then became visible. It was a ring she could not touch, for it was too far away, yet large enough to appear to be very close by. It had the same color as the mist she had seen earlier. A human vehicle was now moving towards it. Whatever the vehicle was, it was quite different from the human constructs that had once flown through Pandora's sky. She had a feeling that it had been made to defy and conquer the blackness.

After another bright flash, she was back again at her altar. In a way she was glad to be back in a familiar environment. Nevertheless, she was also still feeling desperate. She stood up and turned around, ready to go pacing again, only to face a massive heap of rotting bodies. She jumped and let out a short yelp in shock. How was this possible? She quickly concluded that the vision wasn't over. This simply could not be the reality. There had to be hundreds of them. At first she couldn't bear to look, and turned away. After a moment, she convinced herself that it wasn't real. Eywa had given her this vision, so she must want her to see this. Elynin turned around to look again. She could see quite clearly that there were two kinds of dead bodies, which had been randomly dispersed. Some were Na'vi, some were human.

Elynin then broke out of her trance with a jolt. She found herself panting and sweating, still kneeling before her altar. Without thinking twice about it, she removed her queue from the root. She had seen enough. She did not have the feeling Eywa had taken her back, because she believed that otherwise the vision would not have been so painful. What Eywa had shown her, though, might be symbolical of what was going to happen. There were so many questions to be answered, so many events and images which needed to be interpreted. She didn't know where to begin. She was so tired now, that she thought of just taking a nap right here on the forest floor, once her breathing had calmed down.

The sounds of the rainforest went on as they always did. However, not long after falling asleep, she was awoken by strange noises: leaves were moving and branches were breaking. She sat up and faced the direction whence it came. A strange figure came falling from the sky. It had a skin which was patchy and strangely colored. It landed on the cap of a torukspxam, the last shadow fungus, which gave the figure probably the most pleasant landing one could have, after having fallen from such a great height.

"Phooey! I don't believe it!" the figure called out astonished, but relieved. "I'm still alive? That must have… aargh, my leg! That fucking bat-bird thing had me in its mouth!"

Elynin watched the figure standing up with some difficulty. He seemed to be injured, although she couldn't see any obvious wound or blood. It had been a long time, since she had heard someone else speak. She wasn't used to interacting with others anymore. And she couldn't remember ever having directly interacted with someone who appeared to be a Tawtute. Except for a select few, the Tawtute were generally considered to be insane and evil by all Na'vi she had once known. What would this one do to her if he would see her? Still, she couldn't help but admit what she felt right now. " _Eywa has not abandoned me. I am alone no more._ "

Charlie's ambient microphone picked up the sounds of someone speaking. He nervously turned around and faced a Na'vi and her altar. "Guess I'm not alone down here… after all…" he remarked in surprise.

For a moment, they just stared at each other. Charlie soon noticed that his rifle was dangling from the safety strap attached to his backpack. Realizing that he was facing a likely enemy, he snatched his weapon and aimed it at his target. He was about to squeeze the trigger, when Elynin closed her eyes and turned away while holding her hands in front of her face.

Charlie removed his finger from the trigger. Had he been misinformed? The local people were supposed to be a race of battle-hardened killing machines. Yet this one was actually cowering before him. He quickly rationalized it for himself that she was some sort of non-combatant who would call out for the real warriors the first chance she would get. She had to die. He promptly placed his finger back on the trigger.

Again, he found himself to be unable to fire his weapon at this apparently unarmed Na'vi. Instead he tried something else. "Stay there! Don't move! If you move, I will shoot!" he warned.

Next, he tried to get into radio contact with the rest of the squad. "Is anyone there? This is Charlie from squad alpha. Repeat, this is Charlie from squad alpha. I survived the fall. Requesting whatever assistance you can provide." He knew that they couldn't help him get back up, and that these might be his final hours. Nevertheless he felt they owed it to him to at least maintain radio contact until his demise.

Unfortunately, there was no response. Charlie tried several similar messages in an attempt to be heard. In the meantime, Elynin had opened her eyes and had turned back to face him. She couldn't understand any of his words, but she didn't need to. It was clear to her that he had fully intended to use his weapon on her, but for some reason had changed his mind. Despite that, she knew it would be unwise to startle him, or he might still shoot her. Therefore she remained silently where she was, for now.

Suddenly, Charlie stopped halfway one of his messages, when he heard some radio static. "Is anyone there?" He asked again. Some more static could be heard, followed by some barely intelligible words. "… Ha-ha … bloody bird is dead!" the voice exclaimed.

Charlie recognized it at once and this filled him with hope. "Ralf, is that you?! Where are you? This is Charlie; I made it down in one piece!"

Some distance away, another soldier had just gotten to his feet. He was now standing pompously over the corpse of a dead banshee lying on the jungle floor, while talking to himself. "I like the sound of that: Ralf, the banshee wrestler! Nobody dares to challenge him to a wrestling match. Nobody."

It was only several seconds later that Ralf realized someone was talking to him over the radio. He also recognized the voice. "Charlie?! You dog, you made it! Where the fuck are you?"

He received a slightly distorted message back from Charlie. "I'm in the jungle, near a rock wall of about 10 meters high. There's one unarmed native here, who I'm keeping as a hostage in case more of them pop up. But my leg's been hurt. "

"Alright, don't move, then. I'm in the jungle now too, but it's a long story. I'll home in on your signal and come get you. In the meantime, keep your eyes on that native. There's no telling what it might try." Ralf replied as if he was Charlie's protective older brother.

Ralf used his wrist display to locate Charlie's signal and started moving away from the area in which he had landed. However, he realized he had forgotten something. He quickly went back to pull the axe out of the banshee's neck. "This will no doubt come in handy; for close encounters." he muttered to himself.

With his machinegun in his hands, and the axe fastened to his belt, he started making his way through the jungle. He tried to stay clear of any suspicious looking plants or bushes, as his training had taught him. Luckily for him, the vegetation was not so dense here.

After having walked about 80 meters, he came across a large open spot in the middle of his path. In this spot, bundles of sunshine managed to come through the canopy and reach the ground. Sunlight also fell on what appeared to be the corpses of several deer-like creatures. Ralf carefully moved in closer. He could then see that they appeared to be fresh kills, having been slashed open by something with large claws. "Shit." he said to himself, knowing that whatever had made the kills was probably still nearby.

"Get up here, you asshole! And bring my axe, before I have to get it out of that thing's belly." the voice of an unseen woman yelled to him over the radio.

"What the…" Ralf started, before he saw several nearby ground bushes moving. He quickly looked up into multiple directions. "Who in the… How in the blazes am I supposed to get up there?" he asked when he found Astrid about fifteen meters up in a tree.

"Rope. Ascender." Astrid said, sounding far beyond annoyed. Ralf then noticed the rope hanging from the tree, reaching all the way to the ground. "Right… Of course…" he replied nervously. Fleeing from one monster to go up a tree to join another one wasn't what he had in mind. When he heard a loud roar coming from the nearby bushes, he immediately moved over to the rope, however.

Ralf quickly grabbed his rope ascender, a small handheld device, from a side pocket of his backpack and promptly attached and activated it. He was immediately propelled upwards along the rope; soon getting high enough to grab Astrid's outstretched hand.

After being helped up to the branch of the tree, Ralf regained some confidence. He steadied himself and waited to see what would come out of the bushes.

"How thick are you?! Get that rope, we have to get up even higher!" Astrid angrily lashed out to him. "And watch out for her." she added, while she pointed to a nearby tree. Ralf turned his head and could see one of the natives, an agile female Na'vi warrior, who was climbing higher as well.

"And I thought this place was a shithole up on that bloody rock…" Ralf remarked snidely, before hurrying to follow Astrid's lead.

* * *

If assault unit leader Lockwood could bite down on his fist at this particular moment in time, he would have done so already. However, with a full-face breathing mask, he had to make do with grinding his teeth. Three of his troops had fallen over the edge, and had disappeared into the jungle below. So far all attempts at contacting them had failed. Joseph had a theory about magnetic interference caused by their proximity to large quantities of UNOB-1. At this point, Lockwood couldn't care less about any theory, though.

"E.T.A: thirty seconds." Joseph announced to the squad. The shuttle was already visibly approaching. Ten soldiers remained on the floating rock target area. After the incident with the banshee rider, no further shots had been fired, as no further threats had arisen. Nevertheless, the defensive circle was still being maintained, only smaller in size. The UNOB-1 cone floated silently in its special harness and had been temporarily tethered to the rest of the rock. Lockwood slowly walked over to Joseph and started speaking.

"As soon as the package is aboard the shuttle, I want you to take command of the mission. I'm going after them." Lockwood said unnaturally calm, while looking away into the distance.

"With all due respect, sir, I believe it would not be appropriate for me to assume command." Joseph replied without any emotion whatsoever.

"I don't want to hear any more of that. You may not be human, but you are one of us. If you take command, they will not be able to ignore you any longer. They will have to admit publicly that your kind can serve the human cause." Lockwood insisted.

"Sir, you have risked your reputation and career for bringing me along. So I see it as my duty to at least attempt to talk you out of this." Joseph replied, just before the shuttle came to a stop about 5 meters above the rock.

The conversation was interrupted as Joseph caught a tether that had been thrown from the open rear door of the shuttle. He attached it to the harness of the package. Several more of such tethers were quickly lowered from the shuttle and attached to the package by Joseph, with Lockwood's help. Next, Joseph gave the ground tethers some leeway and signaled the shuttle. "Ground is ready for package retrieval." he radioed.

"This is Peace Three-One, understood. Package retrieval commencing. Repeat, package retrieval commencing." the voice on the other side informed them. The package was then slowly hauled inside the shuttle, with Joseph and Lockwood controlling the amount of leeway of the ground tethers. Once the package was inside, two rope ladders were lowered, which was essentially the signal that their mission was almost over.

"All troops, return to the shuttle for extraction. Joseph and I will guard the rear." Lockwood ordered. As the troops left the floating rock two at a time, Lockwood and Joseph stood guard. "You can't stop me, Joseph. You must know this by now." Lockwood then told Joseph over a separate personal radio channel.

"Of course I know, sir. My plan was never to stop you; my plan is to join you." Joseph answered like it was one of the clearest known facts in the world.

"Well, I'm the one who should have known better. You really are something else entirely. I'm not sure I'll ever understand that mind of yours, but I wish there were more like you." Lockwood replied, sounding quite sincere.

Joseph didn't respond to this positive statement about himself, but instead, he immediately returned to the point of the conversation. "What is your plan, sir?"

A moment later, after the two rear guards were the final ones to have climbed back up to the shuttle, Lockwood revealed his plan to the squad.

"Troops! We have almost achieved our primary objective. But no-one gets left behind on my watch. The communications officer has informed me that the shuttle has picked up some very weak signals, but these appear to indicate survivors. Joseph and I are going down to assist them, right now."

Multiple soldiers immediately offered themselves as volunteers, but Lockwood declined them all. "My decision is final. All of you have done your duty well. Now it is time for me to do mine. We're taking B-crew's rover down to the surface. Since we succeeded in retrieving the package, B-crew won't even need to be awoken. Call it an improvised rescue version of the old plan B."

After silently confirming that no-one objected anymore, he continued. "Alright, we load up the rover with our fair share of the supplies. I want food, water, atmosphere scrubbers, fuel, batteries, a standard field toolkit, extra weapons, extra ammo, navigation gear and enough geographic information to fill a fucking atlas. We'll be bailing out in 7 minutes. Yijun! Once I've left this shuttle, you'll be in command. You will proceed according to the mission parameters. See to it personally that the package is taken to the Cathedral."

"I won't let you or Wilhelmus down, sir. Hominum summa!" Yijun replied like a fierce loyalist. And she immediately took charge. "Alright scumbags! You heard the man. Don't stand there gawking like a bunch of baboons, let's give them that rover!"

The squad proceeded in high gear to get the rover ready. The package with the UNOB-1 cone was moved aside, as was a full row of seats. Next, the rover was brought up all the way from the front of the cargo bay towards the rear door. The unneeded B-crew hardware, such as laser cutters and other heavy machinery, was removed and discarded, while at the same time the rover was filled with all the gear and supplies Lockwood had requested. It was a six-person rover with an unpressurized cabin and with a small trailer attached. It had its own parachute system.

Soon, all preparations were finished. Less than seven minutes had passed. Everyone was clear of the rover and it was ready to go. Joseph was at the wheel, with Lockwood beside him. "Take care of yourself, my comrades. Your journey will go on, as will ours." Lockwood said, before Joseph quickly floored the pedal, making the rover roar and shoot out of the back of the shuttle towards the jungle below.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading this story. Since you have made it so far, I'd like to know what you think about it, and if you would want to read more. Feel free to let me know.**


	3. Plan B

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Plan B**

A loud roar could be heard coming from behind an area of dense bushes. Two human soldiers and one Na'vi were holding out in the nearby trees. Ralf and Astrid had climbed almost to the top of the tree they were in, at approximately 25 meters. Astrid was wielding her axe once again. Carefully, they were watching the ground, waiting for the monster to finally show itself.

"What do you reckon we should do now, hmm?" Ralf asked Astrid in a dry and slightly condescending tone of voice.

"Be quiet! If you don't like it up here, I'll help you down, no problem." Astrid replied fiercely.

Ralf cringed at her response. He made a mental note to start learning how to hold his mouth shut for once. Of course, he didn't know if he would make it out of here to start following up on it.

Eventually, the monster revealed itself with a long and elegant jump. It was a dark purple-skinned, six-legged, panther-like creature of around 5 meters in length. As expected, it had large and sharp claws and probably equally horrifying teeth.

First, the Thanator went over to the fresh kills it had made earlier, seemingly to confirm that no one had stolen its prey. Next, it looked up the tree in which Ralf and Astrid were hiding. Without hesitation, it approached the base of the trunk and jumped up against it, leaving its front paws resting on the trunk, and its rear paws on the jungle floor. It appeared as if it wanted to take a closer look.

"Shit! How does it know we're up here?" Ralf asked before he could stop himself.

"It smells your fear, just as I smell it right now." Astrid replied with a savage smirk.

"Oh yeah?" Ralf countered, finally having had enough of Astrid's attitude. "Well, I'm not afraid of dying, if that's what you think. And I have a couple of surprises left in case you are wondering."

Ralf then took out two special impact grenades from his chest pocket. The grenades had a red skull painted on them. He almost accidently dropped them when the tree suddenly shook violently. A quick glance downward revealed that the creature was now trying to climb up the trunk.

"You insane or what?! You'll blow up the whole tree if one of those bounces the wrong way!" Astrid now exclaimed, sounding genuinely worried for the first time today.

"Insane?! Who's fucking insane here?!" Ralf finally snapped back at her. "At least I didn't choose to jump down into the asshole of this world!"

Before Ralf had the chance to arm and throw his grenades, another roaring sound could be heard. This was not any sound made by an animal, though; it came from an engine. Next, several low popping sounds could be heard. Soon, the Thanator was engulfed in a thick cloud of smoke. Both Astrid and Ralf realized the same thing. Apparently, an ally had come and launched multiple smoke grenades.

Down below, on the jungle floor, Lockwood was standing on the backseats of the rover; the top of his body towering out of the rover's roll cage. He had just put aside the smoke grenade launcher, and was now wielding a second grenade launcher with a different kind of ammo. Inside his helmet, a special transparent screen had come down in front of his left eye, which enhanced his vision with infrared data.

Without hesitation, Lockwood fired his weapon. A grenade disappeared into the smoke, and moments later a heavy and loud blast could be heard. White light flashed through the smoke momentarily, as if lightning had struck.

It wasn't over, though. The Thanator could be heard yelping, but quickly seemed to return to attack mode. It began moving into the direction from which the source of its pain had come. It began charging straight at Lockwood.

The latter's confidence was unaffected by this. He continued firing his launcher at the Thanator. Two more grenades disappeared into the smoke and struck the monster. All of a sudden, a stretched out paw grasped the roll cage of the rover, but seconds later, it let go again.

Slowly, the smoke cleared. After a while, the smoldering and partially disintegrated body of the Thanator became visible. Lockwood just stared at it, seemingly to make sure it really wasn't moving anymore.

"Look there, it's our own commander! The bastard came back for us!" Astrid yelled in disbelief, but with a slight smile nonetheless. Ralf looked down and now saw the mangled mess that used to be the Thanator. That was about the last thing he had expected today.

"Good man!" Ralf exclaimed. He then proceeded to inform his commander what else was going on. "Sir, you have to get to Charlie. He's alone, wounded and surrounded by natives. Don't wait for us to get down from here."

"Joseph, you heard him. Lock onto the signal and let's go." Lockwood said calmly. His driver did so without question. The lock was acquired quickly, after which Joseph floored the pedal again, and raced the vehicle towards their next destination. While still standing on the backseats, Lockwood leaned against the roll cage for stability. He had grabbed the smoke grenade launcher again, and was ready for another round.

Back in the tree, Ralf turned around to see the rover speed away. He then noticed that the Na'vi warrior was still in the other tree near them. "You wanna take this shot?" Ralf asked Astrid, this time with a smirk of his own. "You're the one who took her out of the sky, after all."

She replied with an interesting proposal. "I have a better idea; we make it into a match. Rifles only. Five points for the body. Ten for the head."

"Ha-ha! You're on!" Ralf laughed, before getting ready to aim his machinegun.

The female Na'vi in the tree, whose name was Selyat, would have been at a severe disadvantage, were it not for one fact. She understood the language of the Sky People. Even before they were done talking, she had already been preparing to leap to another tree. By the time the first shots were fired, she was already there. The next tree after that wasn't much effort either.

"Bloody hell, she got away!" Ralf blurted out in frustration after his and Astrid's last shots also failed to hit their target. "Should have thrown the axe, huh?" he added boldly. Astrid couldn't see any humor in it. She buried her axe into the nearby trunk of their tree, before uttering a single word. "Fuck!"

Due to the speed at which the rover was moving, it did not take long before Lockwood could see a grey and almost vertical rock wall. Next, he noticed the giant mushroom up ahead, on which one of his troops was standing.

"Charlie! This is Lockwood. What's the situation? How many hostiles are there?" he communicated to his squad member over the radio.

"Only one, sir. She's unarmed and basically my hostage. I don't know if there are any others, but if so, they haven't shown themselves yet." Charlie answered, sounding relieved that help finally seemed to have arrived.

"We'll have to smoke'm out, then." Lockwood said, before proceeding to fire his launcher again. One smoke grenade landed near Elynin's altar and another one several dozen meters away. Joseph was making a wide circle with the rover around Charlie, so Lockwood could scan for enemies.

Elynin was startled by the sudden roaring sounds and the appearance of thick grey smoke. When she inhaled it, it caused a burning sensation in her throat and lungs. Without thinking it over, she got up and started running away from the cloud, which was still increasing in size.

"Fire your weapon into the air, Charlie." Lockwood then said. "We have to let them think that this hostage of yours is being shot. If there are any others around here, they will come out." Charlie immediately did what Lockwood had ordered.

Elynin thought she was being shot at, so she let herself fall to the ground. The smoke caught up to her, though, and caused her to go into a coughing fit.

Lockwood kept scanning the area, while Joseph kept the rover going. There was nothing. No arrows, no spears, no shouts, no war cries. No reaction whatsoever. It appeared to him that this native was completely alone, a most interesting fact, considering what he knew about their people.

"Joseph, that's enough. Stop right here." Lockwood commanded. The rover immediately came to a halt, and Lockwood exited the vehicle wielding a standard issue assault rifle. He quickly marched over to where Charlie's hostage had fallen down.

Elynin was still on the ground. She had grabbed the leaves of the nearest herb, and was holding them in front of her nose. They seemed to help, but not enough. She was still coughing by the time Lockwood appeared in front of her, with his weapon aimed at her.

" _You have a choice. Give up and you don't have to die. Try something else, and it will be your end._ " Lockwood said in a stern voice in the Na'vi language.

Elynin was actually surprised by this statement because of several reasons. First of all, it had been such a long time since she had heard someone else speak to her, and say something she could understand. It was both the usage of her people's language, as well as what he actually said, that made her realize she had to give up. If she wouldn't do so, they would likely kill her, and then no-one would know about what Eywa had shown to her. Eywa would want her to live, even if she had abandoned her to this fate.

After several loud coughs, Elynin managed to form a response. " _You have my word. I won't try anything. Please don't shoot._ "

Lockwood gave her a quick nod, before giving another order to Joseph. "Get some rope, she's coming with us."

A short while later, Astrid and Ralf arrived at the site of Elynin's altar. Lockwood ordered them to get Charlie into the rover. Meanwhile, he and Joseph would secure their captive.

"Man, I'm pooped. Are we getting out of here or what?" Charlie said, as he was being lowered down from the cap of the mushroom.

"Easy there, tough guy. We might not be going back up, but we sure as shit are leaving this jungle." Ralf replied in his usual grumpy tone of voice.

First, Charlie was moved into the seat beside the driver. It turned out he could barely walk on his injured leg. However, due to the very nature of their surroundings, they did not plan to stay here long enough to determine the nature of the injury. Therefore Astrid and Joseph, the only ones in the group with any medical knowledge, applied a tourniquet to Charlie's leg, which would slow down any bleeding of external or internal wounds he might have.

Next, Elynin was led to the rover, with her hands tied behind her back. Her size meant that they had to place her facing sideways, so she could sit down on two seats and still have room for her legs.

Elynin had never been inside a human vehicle before, but didn't make a fuss about it. She silently cooperated all the way. After all, even if she would be tied up, she wasn't being locked away in a small and dark room or somewhere equally dreadful. Apart from the low sides, this vehicle was as open as the rest of the forest. At least she would be able to look around and breathe freely.

"Sir, might I ask why the hell we're taking her along?" Astrid suddenly asked. Her choice of words seemed to be reasonable enough, but her tone of voice gave away the fact that she found it an absolutely idiotic idea.

"We are taking her along, because she appears to be forgotten or otherwise irrelevant to her people. And if we play our cards right, she might even reveal some information about them. Information that could help the colonization party; information that could be crucial." Lockwood said to defend his decision.

"What makes you think she knows anything useful?" Astrid questioned him further, pushing the boundaries regarding the rules of the chain of command in their paramilitary organization.

"How many times have you heard of a Na'vi who lives alone in the jungle like a wise old hermit?" Lockwood asked her instead. When he did not get an immediate answer, he promptly ended the discussion. "Exactly."

Just about when everyone and everything had boarded the rover, Ralf realized he was the only one without a proper seat. He had an idea, however. He approached Joseph, who was sitting behind the wheel. "Get out, Joseph. I'm driving this crate."

"Are you kidding me?" Charlie started. "If you're driving, then I'm getting out."

"What's the problem now?" Ralf asked, irritated by Charlie intervening with his plan.

"When I close my eyes, I still see that poor van you once rammed. Still spinning endlessly around its own axis, the back of its chassis flattened like a pancake." Charlie recalled vividly after actually closing his eyes momentarily.

"Some asshole forgot to put on the parking brake. I couldn't stop for that shit. People's lives were in peril!" Ralf tried to explain.

"They were in peril because of your driving…" Charlie countered.

"Shut up!" Ralf retorted in a way which signaled that another shouting match would probably be unleashed any moment now.

Not wanting to see more time wasted, Lockwood intervened. "I put my faith in Joseph to take us where we need to go. You'll be our rear lockout, Ralf. That's an order." he said calmly, but with a noticeable increase in volume for the last four words.

Ralf muttered some unintelligible words to himself, before backing down and taking a position on the small rear cargo deck of the rover. Despite his effort, he was now again the only one without a proper seat, so he had to make do with squatting, or some other comparable position. It irritated him to no end, especially since the native was occupying a total of two seats. He too did not see the point in bringing her along. He believed she would only be a nuisance at best. Once Ralf was aboard, Joseph started driving.

"So, where are we going, sir?" Charlie inquired like nothing had happened.

"There's a mountain bunker in between here and the RDA's former main base. I reckon it's a good hideout, if it's still intact." Lockwood answered. "It might be a longshot, but it beats camping in the jungle until backup shows up." All members of his squad could agree on that one.

"Still, we might not make it before nightfall; we have to find a usable path first. Any RDA roads are long gone because of this damn jungle." Lockwood remarked with a hint of worry.

"Charlie, you might be wounded, but you can still use your eyes and hands. Help Joseph navigate. I'll keep an eye on our prisoner." Lockwood continued. "Astrid, Ralf, it's your job to spot and report anything suspicious or noteworthy in the environment."

* * *

Sometime later, when they had been driving for a long stretch without anything alarming happening, Charlie decided to strike up a conversation with the quiet one beside him.

"Say Joseph, why do people call you that? Who gave you that name?" Charlie asked with a smile.

"I gave myself that name on the day I truly awoke." Joseph replied, dead serious.

"Really? So did you have another name before that?" Charlie continued, in the hope Joseph would start talking a bit more.

"You could say that I once had two other names. One is the name of my design: Series 6, Model 11, Type 800. The other is the unique identifier code of my hardware: MT-NET-000034"

"Now I get why you picked that name. Any proper name would be better than being called by a number, I suppose." Charlie said, without realizing it sounded as if he was implying that 'Joseph' was still a poor choice for a name. "Wait. What's MT-NET? Your network or something? Or maybe your boss?" Charlie asked, now sounding thoroughly interested.

"That information has been made top secret by an order of the Leader himself." Joseph answered coldly. And with this response, Charlie realized it was probably not a good idea to attempt to have a normal conversation with this human-mimicking machine.

In the meantime, Elynin wasn't exactly at ease. She was still very tired, but there was absolutely no way she could rest right now. She had to keep herself upright when the vehicle would hit a rock, or when it suddenly made a sharp turn. Her hands and ankles were tied. There was also a rope around her waist to prevent her from jumping or falling out. Lockwood noticed her struggle.

" _Those will stay on. It should be clear to you that we simply cannot take the risk._ " Lockwood spoke to her in her language.

" _What are you doing here? My people sent a clear message last time. And what do you want from me?_ " Elynin replied in frustration.

" _There is one simple reason. We need your purple rocks. Otherwise our people will die slowly. Wouldn't you do anything to save your people?_ " he answered in a calculated way.

" _Your people do not know how to live properly, if they die without rocks._ " Elynin retorted, getting more agitated each time she spoke.

" _And your people fail to understand that not everyone in the universe is born with a natural advantage._ " Lockwood replied bluntly. And then he took it up a notch. " _Fortunately, we are on a path to achieving this state for ourselves by our sheer willpower alone. Soon, wherever you look, there we will be. If you were to smash one of us, ten others would come and take our fallen comrade's place. We will be victorious. We will be united. We will be eternal. We are the Violent Storm._ "

Elynin could see a fire in the grey eyes behind the transparent faceplate. Initially, she had gotten the impression that he was a somewhat kind human, as far as they could know kindness. But this sudden intense unyieldingness about him, made him terrifying. It was clear to her that he truly believed that what he had said would come true. Nevertheless, she had a feeling he was probably trying to intimidate her. She wasn't sure if it was working or not, but she found it a scary thought that these new Tawtute would all be like this.

Lockwood continued, this time in a more mellowed tone of voice. " _However, this does not mean we are not reasonable. I do not want war; my Leader does not want war. But if we have no other option, we will do what must be done for our people, whatever the cost. So, please let me know if there are other options. Then perhaps everyone can benefit._ " After pausing momentarily, he added one more thing " _I don't need to know right now. Take your time to think it over, and then let me know._ "

Elynin suddenly had to think about some of the things Eywa had shown her today. Among them had been an image of a large heap of Tawtute and Na'vi bodies. Had they fought each other and died? Or had they made peace, unlikely as it might be, and had they died anyway? Her thoughts were taking her into unknown territories. Would it be possible that they had died side by side, having fought a common enemy? The teal mist? The Tawtute with the inverted face? She realized it was pointless to speculate in her current state. She needed rest, and a lot more time to interpret these signs and events.


	4. Light show

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Light show**

The journey towards the mountain bunker proved to be somewhat tough. Although the group did not run into another Thanator or any other large and dangerous creatures, these were not the only possible obstacles in their path. Various crossings that once existed were now no longer passable. The result was that they had to take a considerable detour, adding at least half a day to the journey.

Therefore, when nightfall drew closer, Lockwood decided to take advantage of another obstacle in their path: a complex system of caves. This place would be an acceptable hideout for the night, and no one had a better idea anyway. They went inside, rover and all, to find a suitable location that would be defendable, and preferably inaccessible to most night predators.

Eventually, they had found the right place. Somewhere in one of the main corridors, there was a short offshoot corridor which had a dead end. This offshoot was about fifteen meters long, and the floor was slightly higher than in the main corridor. From there, they only had to defend one side, and once in the main corridor, there would be two escape routes. Also, in the main corridor, there were various rocks and stalactites which provided good cover positions. Aside from this, they still had smoke grenades, but also motion detectors and several wireless cameras. Thus, the odds of making it through the night unscathed were reasonably good.

Inside the caves, it wasn't pitch-black. There was a vibrant fluorescent blue light inside, which was generated by the bioluminescence of the moss and small plants on the ground. It was hardly necessary to use flashlights.

Right now, Lockwood had taken the first shift to be the lookout, and so he was outside in the main corridor, where the rover had also been parked. In the far right corner of the offshoot corridor, Charlie was sitting on the ground, while Joseph was taking care of his leg. His pant leg had been cut away, so the damage could be assessed. Lucky for Charlie, the damage was limited to bruises and relatively minor bite wounds, considering the type of creature that had attacked him. His suit had definitely done its job.

In the far left corner, Elynin had been chained to a large rock by her ankles. It had been a relief for her to be out of the cramped position inside the vehicle. Also, her captors had allowed her to have her hands unbound, so she had some freedom of how she wanted to lie down. The floor of the cave might have been cold and hard, but Elynin was used to conditions similar to this. At least she had some moss to lay her head on. She was so tired that she had fallen asleep right after they had left her alone in this corner.

As Joseph was bandaging his leg after disinfection, Charlie attempted to strike up another conversation; not with Joseph, but with someone else.

"Hey Astrid? I was wondering something. How did you manage to land on the ground without any real injuries?" he began, sounding almost cheerful.

The only response he got was an audible snort over the radio. "Aw, come on!" Charlie went on. "I myself landed on a giant bouncy mushroom. And Ralf told me that the banshee he rode down to the surface took most of the force of the impact. " Still though, he got no response.

"Did you happen to land on top of that native? The one you were fighting. I mean, was she really that soft and bouncy?" Charlie added with a smile. Ralf was now laughing out loud.

"Piss off!" Astrid yelled, before she stood up to storm out into the main corridor.

Charlie then turned to face Ralf. "What? All I wanted to know was the truth. Otherwise my mind keeps filling in the gaps with weird things."

"Tell me Joseph, how much did you give him for the pain?" Ralf inquired, still grinning.

"I only gave him some mild painkillers, but I believe he was quite convinced he was getting something far more potent. It seems to have worked." Joseph answered in a neutral voice. However, what he said made it seem as if he was not being entirely serious. Ralf immediately noticed this, and started laughing again. Charlie had a different reaction, though.

"Man, Joseph! They said you couldn't lie. But not only did you trick me, you're actually making fun of me!" Charlie responded indignantly, but while still seeing the humorous side of it.

"My mind was built to learn and adapt by means of human interaction. And the people in this squad are not exactly what I would describe as virtuous." Joseph responded in the usual tone.

"No shit!" Ralf exclaimed. Both he and Charlie were now laughing. The joking and laughing went on for a while, as Joseph carefully continued to bandage Charlie's leg. Eventually, both men had tired themselves out, making it all the more easy for them to relax and fall asleep, while still wearing their bulky suits and noisy breathing masks.

* * *

Several hours later, Lockwood returned to their camp. He found both Ralf and Charlie awake. Ralf was fiddling with a small electronic device. Charlie was complaining mostly to himself about the lousy state of the drinking straw inside his mask.

"You shouldn't have chewed on it." Ralf told him bluntly. "If it breaks, good luck trying to drink something with your mask off."

Lockwood interrupted them. "Astrid's on lockout duty. She doesn't want to be disturbed, but she will report in if anything's amiss." he informed them, sounding tired for the first time today.

"Sir, would you have any visual data with you, like something that we can watch to pass the time?" Ralf suddenly asked. "Because I found this beamer in the trailer. It seems to be working, but we don't have anything to watch."

Lockwood looked at Ralf with a frown, seemingly unsure at first if he was making a joke or not. He quickly concluded it was a genuine question. "We aren't on vacation. You two are still on duty. If you're not sleeping, then you're working for the Tempest." he answered sternly. "However, you're in luck that I have no more orders for today. And, I do have something for you."

He approached Ralf and took the handheld beamer the latter was holding. After tapping his own wrist display a couple of times, he checked the display on the beamer.

"There." he said. "They released a documentary about our organization, after we had already left. This was sent to us when the ship was just leaving Earth orbit." he said while returning the beamer to Ralf. "I suggest you keep the volume down. Now, I'm going to lie down and turn my radio off. Kick me in the leg if there are problems."

"Of course, sir. Thank you, sir." Ralf replied in a mild voice not often heard. He then proceeded to carefully set up the beamer; aiming it at the flattest section of the cave wall he could find. Next, he helped Charlie to move closer. However, Charlie accidently kicked some loose rocks, generating some noise. It wasn't that loud, but it was enough to awaken Elynin.

She opened her eyes to find one of the Tawtute standing near her, seemingly just to stare at her. She quickly sat up, and moved back against the cave wall, being creeped out by the long stare of this seemingly dead-eyed Tawtute.

" _My apologies. I did not mean to scare you. I was just admiring the pattern of glowing dots on your face._ " Joseph said eerily calm. Elynin realized that he was the second one of the group who could speak her language.

" _Please, just leave me alone._ " Elynin answered cautiously. She felt strange, looking into those brown eyes of his, like there was nothing there but emptiness.

" _I will leave you alone. But you must understand that there are many things we can learn from each other._ " Joseph said, before casually walking away to join Charlie and Ralf.

Elynin could then see a strange light on the cave wall opposite her position. It was a grey rectangle; quite an unnatural thing to find in a place like this. Soon, she realized that it was somehow under the control of the Tawtute. Three of them were looking at it right now, as the image changed from a simple grey rectangle into things she had never seen before.

"I wonder what Wilhelmus has planned next, after the success of our mission." Charlie said as the movie production logos appeared on the cave wall.

"Quiet." Ralf insisted. "I can't turn up the volume, so no talking during the movie. You'll see soon enough I reckon."

The movie began with a black screen and a trumpet call. Soon, the screen transitioned into the logo of the Tempest, the black dot on a white disk, surrounded by black rune-like lightning sparks. The trumpet call was suddenly backed up by a larger fanfare to make the victorious appearance of the logo complete.

The fanfare suddenly fell silent, and the image of a cityscape then faded into view. It was early in the morning, as the sun was just coming up. Multiple angles and close-ups of the streets were shown next. The city still appeared to be sleeping, since little activity or movement could be seen. This city was quite unlike most other cities on Earth. The amount of skyscrapers and advertisement boards were severely limited. Its buildings were far more traditional. Aside from several modern buildings, gothic architecture could be seen, as well as architecture inspired by that of ancient Mediterranean civilizations.

A slow and sorrowful piece of trumpet music played. It gave the impression that a great battle had been fought, that much had been lost in the struggle. However, once indications of the Tempest's presence became visible, the music became more optimistic, proud even. Images of people's homes and community buildings were shown, with flags hanging out; flags of the Tempest.

The intensity of the music kept increasing steadily. The screen then showed a street seen from up in the sky. Multiple lines of marching soldiers could be seen. The soldiers wore black uniforms and black helmets which completely concealed their faces. Soon, the screen showed large government buildings with Tempest flags on their facades, as well as various monuments, such as statues, erected throughout the city to honor the organization.

The next scene showed a rigid helium airship arriving at the city. It had a dark grey color, with a large Tempest logo on its tail fin. Subsequently, it started its approach to land on a large open plaza in the middle of the city. Hundreds if not thousands of people were shown, gathered at the sides of the plaza, being held in check by crowd fences and a formation of black-armored soldiers.

Some of the people were making a saluting gesture, which consisted of placing the left arm with the hand on the right shoulder, with the left elbow pointing away from the body. At the same time, the right arm was stretched out in front of the body and above the head, with the right hand formed into a fist.

The crowd was getting more and more impatient as the airship touched down and its doors opened. When the Leader finally stepped into view, the crowd went into an ecstatic state. They started hailing him in such loud enthusiasm that the background fanfare could barely be heard. Next, the crowd started calling out his name "Wilhelmus" over and over.

The Leader, Wilhelmus, stepped out of the airship. He was an exceptionally tall man, standing over two meters tall, and he had an impressive muscled physique. He was wearing a beige quasi-military officer's uniform with a black cape, and had a black armband with the logo of the Tempest around his upper left arm.

His short hair was white, as were his curly sideburns, bushy eyebrows and walrus-like mustache. His bright blue eyes scanned the scene briefly, seemingly approving of the crowd welcoming him. Then, he held up his right hand beside his face in a static waving gesture several times to acknowledge the people.

Several more people followed him out of the airship. Most of them were wearing grey or brown military officer's uniforms with peaked caps. They were the other top tier members in the organization of the Tempest. Next, even more people followed. These were a platoon of troops of the Storm Division, also known by the abbreviation "SD". They were all wearing black uniforms with face-concealing helmets.

Flanked by multiple SD troops, Wilhelmus then steadily walked towards a specially constructed podium beside the airship, until he reached the center of the stage. He looked at his audience for a few seconds, until all sounds of shouts, cheers and murmur had died down. Finally, he began speaking. When he spoke, he did so with fierce and vivid body language and with a loud and deep voice.

"My brothers and sisters, I stand before you today not as your Leader, but as your servant; the first servant of humanity. It was, is, and will be my duty to care for the needs of my people, until the day I die. So far, we as a species have had many setbacks, but I promise you that time is over, for tomorrow a journey will commence. It will be a journey to reclaim our honor, but most importantly, it will be a journey to reclaim our future. Soon, the inhabitants of the moon Pandora will bow before us. "

When Wilhelmus paused for a few seconds, the crowd resumed their hails and cheers, and gave him a thunderous applause. When his stance and facial expression indicated that he was about to continue, the crowd fell silent again. For an outsider it appeared as if he could control them with his body language alone.

"My loyal soldier, my trusted friend, Walter Lockwood, assault unit leader in the SD, recipient of the Death's Head First Class, will lead the very first mission, and he will pave the way for our next operation. With his success, the colonization party will be protected, so that they can fulfill their duty to help build the future humanity deserves."

The side of the airship was suddenly revealed to contain a giant screen, for it began displaying the image of a man in a grey officer's uniform. Even though he was smiling lightly, he had an unyielding look in his grey eyes. His uniform had a black domino-like patch on the collar, with four white dots. The grey peaked cap had a small Tempest emblem above a black band. In the middle of the black band there was another emblem. It was a polished silver emblem depicting a skull with crossbones.

As the screen proceeded with displaying similar pictures of the other people participating in the mission, Wilhelmus continued his speech. "In order to fulfil my own duty as the first servant of humanity, I will personally oversee the rebuilding of the colony. In my absence, strong and central leadership will be needed. Therefore, I name my son Reginald Torr as Deputy Leader of the Tempest in our solar system. I have faith that he will perform his duties as best he can, for good of all of humanity. My only wish is that I will live long enough to complete my mission and return home, in order to witness our glorious society; the society that you will have helped to build for your children and grandchildren."

When Wilhelmus paused again, the crowd started again, same as before. For the first time since the start of the movie, however, the viewers started speaking out loud. They were unable to contain their thoughts any longer on this sudden development.

"Man, the Leader is coming here? I can't remember if I packed my parade uniform. That's probably the last person I thought would want to come here." Charlie expressed worriedly.

"Well, I know for a fact that if he does come here, the natives wouldn't dare to start another uprising. The man can scare most enemies into surrendering just by looking them in the eye." Ralf confessed proudly. "No doubt he has something special planned for them. Especially with the package we got for him."

"Yeah, well…" Charlie sounded even more worried. "I hope the natives realize that too. They are kind of stubborn fellows, most of them. The Leader is like commander Lockwood, only multiplied by… uh… I don't know. I mean, once he gets to do what he does best…"

From afar, Elynin kept watching silently with a slightly open mouth, as the humans kept on talking. She hadn't been able to make sense of more than half of the things she had seen. And although she couldn't understand a word that was spoken, she believed that the images she had seen had to be from the humans' home world. Where else would there be so many of them in one location, like a hive of insects?

Even though she had heard tales of the humans' moving pictures before, she couldn't help but wonder if they had brought along something belonging to their own goddess. This might be their counterpart to Eywa, which allowed them to experience the memories of their ancestors.

Nevertheless, she didn't believe that the leading figure in the moving pictures was their god. She figured that he was probably someone who had united a lot of clans, like a Toruk Makto, and thus he was revered accordingly.

However, all these details seemed far less important when she realized that the leading figure looked like someone she had seen before. Only right now, his head and face were normal. There was no mistaking it; this was the same Tawtute as the one Eywa had shown her.

Why had Eywa shown her this person? He had to be very important, since both Eywa and this collection of moving pictures had shown him. The humans appeared to see him as their leader and possibly as their savior. On the other hand, the twisted head and face seemed to indicate that Eywa had noticed a different aspect about him. One interpretation could be that he was actually a twisted and vile person deep down, who would only bring darkness wherever he would go.

Then again, his twisted appearance had only revealed itself when a teal mist had also appeared. Elynin had seen no indication of something similar accompanying his appearance in the human images she had just seen. The mist might not be literal, but the color had to mean something. It was the same color as the floating ring Eywa had shown her; the one a human vehicle had been approaching.

There was another important question she could ask herself. Was this ring a literal object? If so, what object could be so far away and yet appear so large? The only thing she could think of was the appearance of the orbs in the sky, like the one her clan sometimes nicknamed " _The Blue Mother_ ". They were similarly large and far away.

Elynin lied down on the floor of the cave, and pulled her legs close to her chest, as far as the chain around her ankles would allow. She turned around to face away from the humans, who continued watching their moving pictures. She let her mind wander for a while, attempting to remember if she had ever seen a teal colored ring in the night sky, or if anyone had ever mentioned such a thing.

* * *

High above the surface of Pandora, the human interstellar spacecraft known as the TISV Scouter, was carefully maintaining its parking orbit. Once again, two black colored shuttles were attached to its hull. Its crew was standing by for the arrival of the Cathedral. The UNOB-1 cone was being kept in the strongest and most reinforced cargo hold on the entire spacecraft.

Right now, the main TISV crew, which was separate from the shuttle and surface crews, was off duty. The spacecraft was in autopilot mode, while the crew was enjoying one of many grand views which space had to offer. An eclipse was taking place from their point of view. It was visible through the windows on the bridge.

"Johnson, don't tell me you're the only one here who doesn't have a sense of wonder?" the first officer commented to another crew member. The person he was addressing was still strapped into a chair behind a console, while the rest of the crew had gathered in front of the windows.

"Sir, we might have a problem." the crew member behind the console suddenly responded. "You should take a look at these readings, sir."

"Spit it out, Johnson." the first officer replied, slightly annoyed, but also sounding worried about a possible threat.

"The eclipse might be wonderful to watch, but the eclipsing body is not actually a moon of Polyphemus, as we thought earlier. In fact, as far as I can tell, it is an undocumented object in an unknown orbit." the crew member said nervously.

"Are you kidding me, Johnson? Are you telling me that the survey crews of the last seven decades somehow failed to discover an object larger than Mars?" the first officer answered in disbelief.

"Sir, this is not a joke. The object does not exist in any of our charts or databases. Right now, it looks to me like it's a rogue planet." Johnson informed his first officer.

As the discussion was taking place, the attention of the entire crew gradually started to shift away from the view outside to the console data instead. Outside, a pitch-black background with countless of tiny white dots could be seen. The nearest star, Alpha Centauri A, was blocked from view by a spherical body. However, the light of the star still managed to shine through the planet's atmosphere. The center of the planet was not illuminated, and thus it appeared black. Therefore, only a glowing ring was visible. It had brilliant colors ranging from light cyan to dark teal.

* * *

 **I am taking a break with writing for now. There will be new updates at the end of this year and at the beginning of the next.**


	5. Avuneyra

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Avuneyra**

Elynin slowly opened her eyes. Her mouth was dry. She hadn't had something to drink since she had been captured. Even though she couldn't look outside, she had a feeling it was morning already. If a sound had been the cause of her awakening, it was gone now. There was almost total silence.

She sat up slowly and looked around. The Tawtute were either lying down or sitting. None of them appeared to be awake yet. They were not all present, however. A fifth one was missing.

For a while, Elynin wondered if she should put more effort into trying to escape from them. She found it difficult to predict what they were going to do next. The unyielding one had asked her a very important question, but she had no idea how to answer it. How could she speak for her people, if they had cast her away? And if she told him there were no other options other than war, then her people would suffer because of what she had said.

Therefore, she recognized that she had several choices. She could try to escape and get help, but there was a considerable chance she would be caught. If she did manage to get away, then it was probable that her clan or other clans would not believe her without hard proof, due to her reputation. The humans would likely interpret her escape as a sign that she didn't want to speak and they would assume that war was the only viable option. Secondly, she could tell the unyielding one straight to his face what she believed was the stance of the majority of her people; that besides war, there were no other paths to take. Then they would probably kill her and go to war anyway.

If she could somehow convince them that there were other paths to take, she might be able to at least postpone a war. The only problem was that she had no concrete idea of what such a path could be. How could they live together for everyone's benefit? Their peoples were so different that it was hard to imagine them having no conflict with each other. Perhaps some humans could live among them, like the scientists who had joined the Omaticaya. These new ones, though, appeared to belong to their species' warrior caste; much like the ones who had gone to war with her people last time.

Elynin wondered how they would respond if she said that Eywa had shown her a larger threat which required them to work together. It sounded ridiculous to her; not only because this was only one possible interpretation of her vision, but also because even her own people mistrusted her connection to Eywa. Why would these Tawtute trust her word without any physical proof? Would they have any reason to believe this? The unyielding one at least seemed to be open to suggestions; although she was sure he wouldn't be fooled easily.

While she was thinking to herself, Elynin was suddenly startled by a rock hitting the wall behind her. It hadn't just fallen; it had been thrown. She quickly realized who had thrown it: the fifth Tawtute standing in the main cave corridor. She couldn't see the face through the mask, but she could tell that the person was staring at her. Without a warning the person flung another rock at her, which hit her on the shoulder.

" _Stop it! Why are you doing this?!_ " Elynin yelled, alarmed by the sudden hostility. She put her arms up to her face in defense.

"Oh look, the bitch is awake. How was your beauty sleep?" Astrid responded smugly. She then threw yet another rock, which hit Elynin on her forearm.

Elynin let out a short yelp of pain. She then did a second attempt at reasoning with the attacker. " _I did nothing to deserve this! Please stop!_ "

"I was up all night to guard your sorry ass. So the least you can do now, is give me some fun in return." Astrid responded, still with the same attitude. In the meantime, she was getting ready to throw another one.

" _I cannot understand you, you moron!_ " Elynin finally blurted out in pain and frustration.

"Don't hurt her!" a voice suddenly called out. Both Elynin and Astrid quickly found its origin. Charlie was crawling towards them along the cave floor. His wounded leg was unusable for walking, but this wasn't stopping him.

"She didn't do anything!" he continued fiercely. "You have no honor. You're a monster!"

Astrid laughed at his attempt to get in between them. "Look who's talking. It's only fitting that a worm like you gets to crawl like one." she said ruthlessly.

"What's your problem?! Can't you see that you're hurting her?" Charlie responded, ignoring the insult that had been thrown at him.

"That's the idea. What's wrong with having a little fun?" Astrid responded, putting on an overacted quasi-innocent façade all of a sudden.

"What's with all the bloody shouting?! Are we being attacked or what?! How many are there?!" Another voice suddenly interjected. Its owner, Ralf, had gotten to his feet and was wielding his triple barreled machine gun, scanning his surroundings for the nearest target. After several seconds of silence, and after failing to find any enemies, he lowered his weapon.

"Can somebody tell me what the devil's going on here?" he asked, genuinely confused as to what the ruckus was all about.

"Astrid is hurting the native. I'm putting a stop to it." Charlie replied confidently, despite the fact that he was physically in no position to do such a thing.

Ralf had to think for several seconds, and looked back and forth between Charlie, Astrid and Elynin before coming up with a response. "Well, I… I certainly wouldn't want to spoil anyone's fun." he finally answered reservedly, looking mostly into the direction of Astrid as he said it.

Feeling that she was being understood for once, Astrid gave him a small nod of acknowledgement without saying anything.

"Leave them to their business, Charlie. Now, let me help you get up." Ralf continued, taking on the protective older brother role again.

In his determination, Charlie would have none of it, however. "Stay away from me! And I don't need your bullshit, so shut up!" he shouted. After this blunt response, another shouting match between the two was promptly unleashed.

Meanwhile, both Joseph and Lockwood were silently watching the scene from afar. They had been doing so since the second rock had been thrown. They had switched to a personal radio channel, preventing the others from hearing them.

"Sir, might I inquire as to why you chose them for your team?" Joseph asked, giving the impression that he was worried about the kind of behavior he was seeing.

"Some I picked; but most were picked for me." Lockwood answered dryly. "Our mission was only meant to last a short while anyway. Only the Leader himself was convinced that this wasn't some suicide run, and that I was the one who could pull it off. The SD group leaders on the other hand, were not so convinced. So they let some of their troops join my team, but only the right ones: those who were skilled enough, but also those who they wanted to get rid of. We are looking at the results."

"I see, sir." Joseph answered calmly. "Perhaps we should intervene now."

"I'm glad you're with me, Joseph. All this would have been unbearable otherwise." Lockwood replied sincerely.

And so Lockwood and Joseph broke up the discussion. Lockwood proceeded to rebuke the behavior of all three of his troops, first Astrid, and then Ralf and Charlie. Next, he ordered them to prepare the rover for immediate departure.

"You lot have disgraced the Tempest and the SD. Go make yourselves useful!" Lockwood finally finished-off his monologue, before turning to Elynin.

" _Right now, I will not let them harm you. But I'm afraid that if you have nothing to offer, I will reconsider my point of view. Keep that in mind._ " he said to her in a cold tone, before returning his attention to his troops.

Elynin wasn't sure what had just happened. So many words; so much emotion; and yet she had no idea what had been going on, or why it had stopped as quickly as it had started. At least no one was throwing rocks at her anymore.

Astrid and Ralf went to the main cave corridor. They were followed shortly thereafter by Lockwood. Charlie stayed behind to gather up their supplies and gear as far as his physical condition allowed.

For the following few moments, Elynin just sat still on the ground, looking around nervously. She realized she was at their mercy in her current position. Perhaps the rock-thrower would come back once the unyielding one wasn't looking. In any case, she had to stay vigilant.

Soon, she noticed the wounded Tawtute, the same one who had fallen from the sky and landed near her. He was now crawling towards her and stopped a short distance away, just out of her reach. Presumably, he stayed back a bit so she wouldn't have the ability to grab him.

He then sat up and held up something in his hands. It was a small container of sorts, which had the shape of a cube with a snout-like protrusion. He turned it around several times, probably to show her that it was harmless, before he held it up to his face. Elynin wondered what he was doing, until she realized he was pretending to be drinking from it. Obviously he couldn't do it physically, due to the face mask, but it appeared he was putting effort into trying to communicate something to her.

Next, he held out the container in her direction momentarily, before throwing it gently so that it landed near her feet. When it hit the ground, a fluid could be heard sloshing inside. Elynin looked suspiciously at the object for several seconds, before exchanging glances with the Tawtute.

"It's good. It's clean water from the planet Earth. It's not even irradiated. It's very fine quality. And here I'm giving it to you for free. So please, take it." Charlie said to her in an optimistic and nonthreatening voice.

The meaning of these words was undecipherable to her, but she had a feeling he was at least trying to be kind. This did fit somewhat with the bits of facts she knew about him. First, he had refused to use his weapon on her during their first encounter. And just now, it appeared he had played a role in getting the rock-thrower to stop hurting her. He looked and sounded somewhat honest. It did not mean she trusted him, but this was likely the most positive interaction she had had with the humans so far.

She decided to inspect the container for herself. After leaning forward, she let her slender fingers run over the surface of the container. It was very smooth. Then, she took it in both her hands, and carefully shook it, causing its contents to slosh some more. There was definitely something liquid in there.

Just when she realized there was no opening, she saw the human making a strange motion with his hand, like he was turning something invisible. Elynin then took a closer look at the container, and noticed that the snout-like protrusion seemed to have some kind of cover on the end. Perhaps he was trying to show how to remove it. She tried to apply the same movement to the cover.

"No, no, no, the other way around. You're only tightening it further like that." Charlie suddenly interjected. When Elynin gave him an angry glance, he quickly held up his hands, probably trying to indicate he wasn't criticizing her.

Again, he made the same motion, but slower this time. Elynin quickly noticed her error and reversed her turning direction. Soon, the cover came off, and the liquid inside became accessible.

Elynin sniffed it first, unsure if it was really drinkable. It smelled strange, unlike anything she had ever smelled. However, it wasn't a foul smell; it was more like it had been perfumed in some way.

She took a small sip, and was prepared to spit it out if needed. It turned out that it was somewhat tasteless, as water usually was. Even better, this was exactly what she craved at this moment. She glanced at Charlie momentarily, this time with a more neutral expression on her face. He looked back at her expectantly with his clear green eyes. Elynin supposed she could drink some more, and promptly did so. She took her time to drink up the entire contents of the container.

"Yes, nice water. You should drink it all. You're big; you need a lot more than us." Charlie said to her as if talking to a child or pet. "Joseph filled up my suit yesterday. I think I'm going to have some myself." Charlie continued with a smile, before taking the straw inside his mask into his mouth and following her example.

When Elynin had emptied the container, a loud growling sound could be heard. It was immediately clear to Charlie where it had come from; he started laughing. Elynin had heard and felt the sound coming from her stomach. She was initially startled by Charlie's reaction, though soon she also managed to smile.

"Don't worry. We've got enough food. But it's for humans. I'm not sure you'll like it." Charlie said. "I'll get some, and then you can try it."

Elynin watched silently as Charlie started crawling back. He was wounded, and yet he was putting all this effort into helping her. She was relieved that they weren't all like the grey-eyed unyielding one or the rock-thrower. This one might help her to get through this. If only they could speak directly to each other, then she could likely get a better idea of his intentions. For now, he seemed to be the closest thing she had to an ally amongst the Tawtute.

Partially hidden behind a rock, the human-mimicking machine Joseph had been observing the interaction between the human and the Na'vi. His eyes and face revealed no emotion, for they had not been designed to do such a thing. The eyes seemed to be calculating, and they seemed very interested in what was transpiring in front of them.

* * *

On the far side of the Hallelujah Mountains as seen from the former RDA main base of Hell's Gate, there was a Na'vi village located in the jungle. It was a village without a traditional Hometree. The village was constructed in and around a collection of large roots, branches, and vine-like growths that twisted around to form quite a maze together. Most branches were strong and wide enough for a Na'vi to walk on, thus creating many pathways that could be traversed.

The maze of branches reached from the jungle floor to around thirty meters into the air, and was spread over a large area. Some of the paths led to what could be described as knots; places where the branches intertwined even more densely than in other locations. Most of these knots were hollowed out to form places that were usable for daily clan life. Some of the other paths led to constructed wooden platforms or to the topsides of large rocks, thus providing additional room for outdoor clan activities.

This village was the home of the small Avuneyra clan, which had around eighty members. In this location there was a lot more living space than the clan had need for. Several woven triangular banners could be seen on the outskirts of the village. These banners mostly had the natural color brown from the used building materials. However, they also displayed a brightly yellow painted figure in their centers: the silhouette of a prolemuris, a creature which the Na'vi called _syaksyuk_.

This creature held a special place in the beliefs and culture of the clan. Whereas several other clans' beliefs and rituals primarily revolved around the banshees, or _ikran_ , this was not the case for the Avuneyra clan. The _syaksyuk_ symbolized agility and the techniques used by the clan's hunters to move through the forest. Also, one had to be pretty agile in the first place in order to move around effectively in the maze-like home of the clan. Therefore, the elderly and the young usually resided closer to the ground, while only those in their prime dared to make the upper areas into their home.

Any Na'vi in their prime but with some kind of leg injury was therefore something of an outsider in the clan, at least in the eyes of their peers. The young male hunter Tsa'kan was currently experiencing this phenomenon firsthand. For many days now, he had been unable to join a hunt, or any other physically demanding activity due to his injured ankle.

During the last few days, his peers hadn't even stopped by him anymore to share their stories of their hunts or adventures. He had a feeling that he had to prove himself all over again, once his injury had healed. Nevertheless, he had also made considerable progress in the last couple of days. He could walk around again with little effort, but running and leaping were still out of his reach.

Right now, Tsa'kan was resting in a hammock that was suspended just a meter above the jungle floor in a quiet corner of the village. Apart from his injury and the dressing around his ankle, he looked like a regular young hunter. He was more lean than muscular; his physique was almost feminine. His jawline was slim with a pointed chin. He had his hair long and in multiple thin braids. Only the left side of his head was completely shaven, making his hairstyle very asymmetrical.

Suddenly, he could hear a voice calling out to him, and he sat up in his hammock. When Tsa'kan recognized the high-pitched and enthusiastic voice of his younger brother Namuk, he sighed and let his head fall back down.

Namuk was still a child. He had a sleek body and a somewhat round face. His short hair was braided in a very simple fashion. Tsa'kan found his appearance to be quite boring.

" _Brother! Brother! You are not going to believe this!_ " Namuk called out to him while running and half tripping over several rocks. " _The Sky People have returned!_ "

" _Watch where you are going. You will never be a good hunter if you cannot even see what is in front of you._ " Tsa'kan replied, sounding annoyed. " _And what is this nonsense about the Sky People?_ "

" _Selyat has seen them! She has fought them! I heard her talking with Olo'eyktan Mayran. I spied on them without being seen!_ " Namuk answered proudly.

" _So you can be stealthy if you want to be. Then there is still some hope for you._ " said Tsa'kan, who still did not seem to fully realize what his brother was trying to tell him.

" _Brother, you have to be ready to fight as well! Selyat said she had seen them near Palulukan Ridge. Isn't that where our sister said she would go to?_ " Namuk continued, this time sounding somewhat worried.

Tsa'kan suddenly snapped into full awareness after realizing what his younger brother was telling him. " _Wait, what are you saying? There are Sky People near Elynin? We have to do something, now!_ " he blurted out without thinking twice.

" _Brother, what can we do? What about your wound?_ " Namuk asked, unsure of their ability to do anything about the situation.

" _Use those stealth skills of yours: find and bring a pa'li for us to ride. I will gather my weapons. I am not going to sit around while our sister is in danger. And since the rest of our clan doesn't care for her anymore, we have to go and help her ourselves. I will not let them stop us again. We will ride out to her and fight those Sky People from horseback if needed._ "

Tsa'kan made this announcement with much confidence in his voice. Namuk was fully convinced that his brother could do all the things he had just said. However, Tsa'kan himself didn't think it through completely. All he could think of right now was that his fragile sister would be facing the threat of the evil Sky People. He could not live with the idea that he had failed to protect her yet again.


	6. The bunker

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: The bunker**

The roaring of an engine could be heard as a four-wheeled rover slowly moved up a steep and narrow mountain path. The squad had reassumed their previously assigned positions inside the vehicle. Again, Joseph was driving with Charlie seated beside him. The next row of seats was occupied by their tied-up captive, Elynin. Lockwood and Astrid were on the third row, with Ralf on the small rear cargo platform.

After having been ordered to make himself useful, Ralf had taken the opportunity to construct a makeshift defensive position on the rear of the rover. He had taken multiple spent crates and boxes from the trailer and had taped them together, forming a low U-shaped wall that provided some cover against external projectiles. At the same time, the wall provided him with some support for his heavy weapon. He could lean it against the crates for some stability if needed.

Half an hour ago, the sound and movement of the rover had attracted the attention of some viperwolves. Some had dared to follow the vehicle, earning them a status as valid targets. Ralf had started picking them off one at a time, having assumed they would eventually give up. As the rover started moving up the mountain path that led to their destination, Ralf continued firing short bursts at the pack. However, it seemed that the pack was actually growing larger over time, as more wolves from the surrounding areas joined in gradually.

"Those shits aren't giving up. And they're multiplying. Permission to use a grenade, sir?" Ralf reported to assault unit leader Lockwood.

"Go ahead, but make it count." Lockwood replied, slightly worried about their ever diminishing stockpile of ammunition.

"Too bad grenades don't grow on trees, eh?" Ralf interjected with a smile. Lockwood ignored him, however.

"That depends on your definition of a grenade." Astrid replied, while looking sideways. She suddenly fired a single bullet at a passing tree, right in one of its red and spherical fruit-like growths. The bullet caused the sphere to explode, promptly spraying debris over the pursuing pack of viperwolves. It didn't have much of an effect on them, other than further agitating them. Ralf rolled his eyes.

"Well that's lovely, but I mean a real grenade, not some jungle balloon. Or do you want to throw balloons at them?" Ralf responded to Astrid's action with a hint of satire.

"Just stay put, I'm joining you." Astrid suddenly told him.

"Wait, what are you… there's not enough room!" Ralf quickly protested. Her announcement was the only warning he got from her. Astrid swiftly climbed out of her seat like a trained acrobat, leaving her backpack behind. Next, she squeezed herself into a kneeling position in between Ralf and the wall of crates. It was quite an awkward position. Ralf needed several seconds to adjust, both physically and mentally.

"Alright. Now I can intervene if you fuck up." Astrid said straight to Ralf's face, which was only a few centimeters away from hers. Their transparent faceplates were practically touching.

"You… what the… what do you want?" Ralf stumbled to form a coherent response.

"What are you waiting for? Do you even have a launcher with you, or do I have to do another stunt and pull one out of your ass?" Astrid said to him with no discernable expression other than a smug grin.

Ralf was initially at a complete loss for words, until he decided he might as well go along with her game. He rested his machine gun against the crates and retrieved the grenade launcher that was lying at his feet, thinking up a suitable response as he was doing so.

"This one should do for now. We'll leave the bigger one for later, okay? Then you can do all the acrobatics you want. I don't mind." Ralf replied with his chin pointed slightly upwards.

After loading the weapon and aiming it at the pack of viperwolves, he momentarily turned to look at Astrid. She hadn't said anything after his retort, but was simply looking at him in excited anticipation, still with the same grin. Something in those light blue eyes of hers was different though. He couldn't quite explain it, but she seemed to stare straight into his eyes for once, and without turning away.

He turned his head back after a few seconds and sighed to himself, wondering if perhaps he had bitten off more than he could chew with her. She had quite a reputation after all. But then again, so did he.

Without further delay, he fired at his targets. The grenade exploded several meters behind the trailer, causing many immediate casualties. Several more of them were wounded and were thus quickly forced to give up the chase.

Ralf couldn't grab his machine gun in time to finish off the remaining ones, however. Astrid had beaten him to it. With several short bursts she killed or crippled the last of them until nothing was following the rover anymore.

"See you in hell, mongrels." Astrid called out victoriously after the last one had fallen down. "Oh wait, we're already there."

"We might very well be." Ralf agreed with her. "But we were born for hell, don't you think?"

"True. Let's make ourselves at home then." Astrid answered. "We'll kill and fuck and do whatever we like on this planet." She said bluntly, without holding anything back. Before Ralf could respond, Joseph interrupted him.

"Base entrance at sixty meters and closing. Entrance will be visible after clearing this last slope." Joseph said soberly, as if they were coming up to another train stop.

"Joseph, stop right here." Lockwood immediately commanded. As the rover came to a quick stop, he turned to the rest of the squad. "Troops! Eyes and ears open. We have reached the base. Status is unknown. Hostiles might be nearby. Engage hostiles only if they shoot first. Charlie, send up the drone. I want a report on the defenses and any nearby activity. Right now."

"Of course, sir." Charlie acknowledged. He then took out the small black drone and its remote controller from a case under his seat, with Joseph helping him wherever needed.

"Astrid, Ralf, consider this my last warning. Anymore of that bullshit and I'll have you both degraded in rank to regular trooper when this is over." Lockwood sternly warned. "Is that clear?"

Both of them acknowledged the order, and kept quiet thereafter. They knew that Lockwood had no tendency to make empty threats. In either case, there wouldn't be a lot of room for joking around in the following minutes.

After Charlie reported that the base appeared to be deserted, with zero activity and the defenses overgrown by plant life, Lockwood ordered Joseph to drive closer to the base. Lockwood looked through the scope of his rifle as the rover cleared the last slope. A steep and rocky mountainside came into view. Only the façade of the mountain bunker and several overgrown machinegun posts gave away the fact that humanity had once been here.

Once Joseph stopped the rover about ten meters away from the bunker entrance, Lockwood ordered Charlie to remain in the vehicle to keep an eye on their captive. The rest of the squad was ordered to join him to enter and secure the bunker. Once they were out of the vehicle and in position, Lockwood gave the order to open the electrically locked door.

"Joseph, run a bypass." he commanded. The human-mimicking machine proceeded to pry open a metal panel just below the door's numerical controls. He then took a small pair of pliers from his pocket to cut some wires. Next, he connected a small electronic device to the exposed interface and let it do a decoding run. Several seconds later the lock could be heard disengaging. Also, the red light above the numerical panel turned green.

When Lockwood grabbed the door handle, he had to put some effort into actually opening the door, as it was jammed. Eventually, the door swung outward, resulting in a slight inrush of air into the airlock. It was completely dark inside, with only the light from outside illuminating the compartment. Lockwood stepped inside and peeked through the narrow window of the inner airlock door. Behind the glass, it was pitch-black. There was also no sound to be heard whatsoever; the pumps and fans were not running, nor was there any humming of other systems.

"Low power mode is active. Find the airlock controls." Lockwood commanded his squad. However, he did so in a lowered voice, seemingly worried that they might alert someone or something.

Within several seconds, Joseph answered him. "I know the design of this type of airlock. There is a maintenance interface right below the regular controls. It is behind this panel."

"Do your work." Lockwood said calmly. He and the others stood guard until Joseph had removed the metal panel and used the controls to make the lights and other systems return to their normal states. Several lights flickered and some did not come on at all. A humming sound could also be heard. The corridor behind the inner door was now lit, but only very minimally.

After closing the outer door, activating the airlock and opening the inner door, they went inside the grey and dimly lit complex. Lockwood went in first, followed by Joseph and Astrid, with Ralf at the rear. All of them had their weapons ready. They did not yet take off their masks, as Lockwood first wanted to be sure of the integrity of the base's life-support system.

The first corridor soon led them to a storage room. Various crates had been stacked up against one of the walls. Also, there was an empty vending machine still partially in its packaging. Most noteworthy, though, there was a backlit yellow and grey RDA logo on the back wall of the room.

Lockwood stopped momentarily and turned to his squad. "Anyone seen any signs of life so far?"

Astrid simply shook her head without saying anything. Ralf replied negatively. "Zip, sir. I don't think anybody's been here for a long time."

"The mainframe might contain data on the usage history of this facility." Joseph informed the squad.

"Good point. I want you to go there and find out. Take Ralf with you. Astrid, you're coming with me." Lockwood ordered. "And if you find anyone, no matter whom, you take them into custody for later questioning. If they refuse, or if they shoot first, kill them."

* * *

In the meantime, Charlie and Elynin had remained inside the rover. Both had been immobilized, albeit for different reasons, so it wasn't necessarily by choice that they were still here. Nevertheless, since this morning they did not mind being in each other's company.

Charlie had been searching for something to do or say. First he had put the drone back in its case. Then he had briefly browsed through its instruction manual. This was a standard issue SD drone. The manual contained nothing he hadn't seen or read before, so it was all quite boring. Then out of nowhere, an idea popped into his head. He had the idea of humming a song to entertain both Elynin and himself. He chose to hum because he knew himself to be a horrible singer.

After a long silence, he suddenly started humming out loud. The song was an upbeat march, which had gotten stuck in his head. Back on Earth, this particular march was usually only heard in parades, with soldiers of the SD goose-stepping whilst carrying black banners with the Tempest logo. Charlie did not care about the song's context, however. He found it by itself to be bright and optimistic enough to be repurposed for simple entertainment and to make one Na'vi's captivity a little less grim and monotone.

At first, Elynin did not understand what the human was doing. The weird noises did not sound like anything coherent to her. She frowned at him, but he either didn't seem to notice, or he didn't care, for he simply continued with what he was doing, with a smile on his face. To top it off, he even started bobbing his head.

After a while, she began to notice some patterns. There was some repetition. There was even some kind of melody, but it was quite different from the kind she was used to. His head bobs seemed to follow the melody. In any case, it was a weird way of singing as this normally required one to open one's mouth. When he eventually reached the ending, Elynin caught herself wanting him to continue and even wanting join in.

After he had stopped, though, she had trouble remembering the melody on her own. Instead, she decided to mimic his technique, but while using a song she could recall without much effort. It was a slow, soft and gentle lullaby. This particular song popped into her head because this human reminded her of a child, both in size and in demeanor. Therefore, she found it quite fitting.

Charlie's smile widened when he heard her responding to his humming with her own melody. At first he watched her silently and somewhat awestruck. To him, she seemed to be serious about it. Soon, he decided that her performance was worth recording. He took out the beamer which they had used yesterday, since it also functioned as a recording device for audio and visual data.

Elynin did not notice any of this, for she had momentarily closed her eyes. She was getting quite immersed into the song as she started thinking about her younger brothers. She wanted to see them again one day. For now, she told herself to take comfort in the fact that they at least had each other to rely on.

When Elynin finally finished humming the song and opened her eyes, she found Charlie clapping his hands in approval.

"Well done. If you can hum like that, you must be a wonderful singer." he told her, sounding quite impressed.

As usual, Elynin couldn't understand his words and simply smiled in return. She figured he would have responded quite differently if he found her performance to have been awful.

Without a warning, the airlock door swung open, and promptly hit the wall with a loud clang. Charlie could see Ralf stepping out awkwardly. He was carrying something on his shoulders. It looked like a small person. As abruptly as he had opened the door, Ralf now threw the person down onto the ground. The force of it sent a partially mummified and partially skeletal head rolling into the direction of the rover.

"Man, what the fuck?! How about showing some respect for the dead?" Charlie called out in disgust.

"Easy, man. The way I see it, he's probably excited to see the sun and smell the fresh air after so many years. I mean, look at his head roll." Ralf said in between his laughing.

"I can't believe you. You should be ashamed." Charlie responded aghast.

Ralf's face turned straight all of a sudden. "I would be, if we hadn't found evidence that the fellow went AWOL. He abandoned humanity long ago. He's a traitor, and he ruined a perfectly good couch by dying on it."

"I'm not talking to you anymore. Go put your head up your ass." Charlie said while also making a rude hand gesture in the direction his colleague.

"Oh please, like you've never manhandled corpses before. Get off your high horse." Ralf replied indignantly. "And in case you're still interested, the base is intact. We're going to get through this."

Charlie remained silent and even turned his face away, indicating to Ralf that he wasn't joking. Ralf saw no other way forward than to make the feeling mutual. "Well, fuck you too then." he said exasperatedly, after which he planned not to talk to Charlie anymore either.

Several minutes later, Astrid also exited the bunker. Together with Ralf, she proceeded to chain Elynin to the nearest tree. Next, they reluctantly started carrying Charlie inside. None of them spoke to each other. Both Astrid and Ralf would rather not have done these actions, but assault unit leader Lockwood had ordered it. He had also called for an immediate debriefing.

When Charlie was carried out of the inner airlock door and into the first corridor, he removed his mask for the first time since putting it on yesterday. If he had been in a good mood, he probably would have made a joke about the O-shaped line that was now running across his face. Right now, however, he remained completely silent. Though it was nice to be able to breathe again without a mask, this had not made the atmosphere more pleasant. If anything, it was harder to breathe with these invisible tensions in the air.

The air only seemed to thicken when Charlie was lowered into a sitting position onto the floor of the nearest storage room. A backlit yellow and grey logo on the wall had been mostly obscured by a black flag with the logo of the Tempest. Beside it, another flag had been hung. The second flag depicted the stern blue-eyed face of the Leader.

Lockwood was standing beside the two flags, with his arms crossed. He had removed his helmet and facemask, and was now wearing a frayed and slightly crushed grey and black peaked cap with a silver skull and crossbones emblem. Apparently he had carried around the cap and the flags in his backpack all this time. And now he had decided it was a good time to pull them out.

He was the one to start speaking. "You are all silent for once. Good. Perhaps you remember now." he began in a strangely calm way, that sounded like it was somewhat forced.

Lockwood caught them all looking briefly at the flags he had put up. "Yes, I figured you needed something visual, something tangible, in order to fully remember."

"Never forget." he continued in the same tone. "Never forget who we ARE!" he suddenly called out, with maximum volume emphasis on the last word of his sentence. This certainly caught everyone's full attention.

Lockwood then continued on to his actual message. "It will be several more days at the very least before more SD troops arrive. We have a nice little home now. I can imagine far worse fates. Though, if anybody still does not feel like taking orders, then leave now, and be an outlaw for all I care. But know that the Tempest does not forgive traitors. On the other hand, follow my orders without question, and you will still be considered heroes for securing the package; you have my word on that one. It is that simple. Do you understand?"

All three quickly recognized the consequences if they would continue to push the limits with their behavior, like they had done before. Almost simultaneously, they verbally acknowledged Lockwood as their commander and Wilhelmus as their Leader. All three followed up the acknowledgement by silently performing the Tempest salute: the left arm with the hand on the right shoulder, elbow pointing away from the body, the right arm stretched out above the head, with the hand formed into a fist.


	7. The cathedral

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: The cathedral**

Night was approaching. The green jungle was gradually starting to show its bright night colors. A lone direhorse with two Na'vi mounted on its back was slowing its pace. One of the Na'vi was the young hunter Tsa'kan. He was wielding a bow, and had his eyes focused on something in the distance. His younger brother Namuk was sitting behind him. Namuk had placed his arms tightly around Tsa'kan's waist. Carefully, perhaps even fearfully, he was peeking from under his brother's left arm.

" _What is it? Do you see anything?_ " Namuk asked out loud, disrupting the steady background sounds from the surrounding jungle and giving away their position.

" _Quiet, you moron. They will hear us coming._ " Tsa'kan whispered carefully. He felt like he could cringe. He realized that perhaps it had been foolish to bring his brother along.

After a short while, he mentally told his mount to come to a halt, which it promptly did. Up ahead, the jungle had been ravaged. One did not need to have the skill of reading tracks to be able to tell this; it was that obvious. Branches had been broken and there even appeared to be some fire damage.

" _No way, is that a palulukan? Hold on, is it dead?_ " Namuk started again loudly. His last sentence was a little less loud, as he realized the creature had been gravely injured and was not moving at all.

" _We will be dead too, if you do not shut up._ " Tsa'kan warned him, still whispering.

Namuk lowered his voice to a whisper, but did not stop speaking. " _What could have killed him? I thought they could not be killed._ "

Tsa'kan looked around carefully. His forehead had become sweaty. He could not see any predator nearby, only several more dead animals. If something had killed this palulukan, it had to be pretty powerful. There was only one logical explanation for it that he could think of.

" _The Sky People Selyat said she fought; they must have done this. They must be horrible indeed..._ " Tsa'kan whispered, sounding worried. " _Namuk, I want you to ride back to our village. I will search for Elynin myself._ "

" _No. I am not going anywhere. She is my sister too._ " Namuk answered indignantly, but still in a hushed tone.

" _Don't you see? It is dangerous here. How would you help Elynin if you get hurt? You are a child. You do not know how to fight. And I cannot fight for two. Not yet._ " Tsa'kan said in an attempt to make his brother see his reason.

" _I would know how to by now, if you would teach me faster._ " Namuk protested. " _But I will not leave. I am not scared._ " he said, with a shiver in his voice.

" _Is that so? A good hunter must think as both predator and prey. Being scared is a part of that. A good hunter knows when he is being hunted himself._ " Tsa'kan said in another attempt to convince his brother to leave.

" _Are we being hunted?_ " Namuk whispered, still shivering. His ears were now almost completely lowered against his head. " _What if I leave? Will they come after me? No way am I going out there by myself. I will stay right here._ "

Tsa'kan closed his eyes momentarily and sighed to himself. It hadn't quite worked out the way he had intended. He saw no choice but to resign himself to the situation.

" _You can stay, but you should take my throwing axe, just in case. I do not know yet what is out there._ " Tsa'kan replied, still sounding somewhat worried. Namuk silently took the axe from the side of the saddle.

Next, Tsa'kan mentally commanded his mount to ride forward again, but slowly. Soon, the direhorse was walking past the dead body of the magnificent dark purple-skinned, panther-like creature. Tsa'kan could now see the severity of its wounds; it was no wonder it had died. Judging from the state of the body, he determined that it had been dead for at least a day, probably even longer.

This estimate made it unlikely that the killers were still around. Then again, he couldn't be sure of that, if they were indeed dealing with Sky People. It was difficult to predict their actions, or so he had heard at least. They might still be lurking about. Back when the Sky People had been here in large numbers, Tsa'kan had been too young to be a hunter or warrior, so he had no experience in dealing with them directly.

He then noticed more damage to the jungle up ahead, and directed his mount there. After dismounting and disconnecting his queue, he studied his surroundings more closely. This damage was more subtle. Small branches had been broken. Also, two reasonably straight lines could be seen on the ground. The jungle floor had been disturbed. Tsa'kan concluded that those were not the kind of tracks made by any animal he knew. He was now almost certain they were following the tracks of the Sky People.

" _What is it?_ " Namuk inquired curiously, but not without sounding frightened.

" _Be quiet. I need to think._ " Tsa'kan answered dismissively.

He resumed control of his mount, and then directed the direhorse along the tracks through the jungle. It was not long before he recognized his surroundings. They were getting very close to Elynin's altar. Judging by the direction the tracks were moving towards, the Sky People seemed to have gone to her in a relatively straight path. It was highly likely they had found her. When he concluded this for himself, he felt dread come over him. The situation seemed to be as he had feared.

Not long after, they reached the site of the altar. Both Na'vi promptly dismounted. Tsa'kan wanted to listen to his surroundings first, but Namuk decided to take the initiative.

" _Elynin! Are you here?_ " Namuk yelled out loud, having apparently already forgotten that he was supposed to remain silent.

Tsa'kan shushed him by quickly grabbing his brother's wrist. " _When I prayed to Eywa for a little brother, I should have asked for one more quiet and with more sense than you._ " he whispered, sounding quite irritated.

This remark made Namuk briefly think about their parents. It also jolted him back to reality. " _Sorry, sorry, I will stay silent from now on._ " Namuk said, as he lowered his head in embarrassment, finally realizing that not only was he not helping his brother, but that he was actually being a nuisance.

The next several minutes, Tsa'kan carefully crept around the site of the altar, trying to figure out if anyone was there, without presenting anyone with an obvious target. Namuk stayed close by the entire time. Tsa'kan had to admit to himself that his brother could indeed be stealthy, as long as he wasn't talking.

After a while, both of them realized that there was no one here anymore. Tsa'kan walked over to Elynin's altar and carefully ran his fingers over the tops of the stone jars. She had been here recently; he just knew it. But now she was gone. He had seen no evidence of a struggle.

All of a sudden, he noticed a strange object lying on the ground. He knelt to pick it up. It was a cylindrical metal thing. When he sniffed it, he quickly pulled his face away and let the object fall back on the ground. Whatever it was, it was foul. It must have been made by the Sky People.

Tsa'kan now broke the silence with disappointment in his voice. " _Brother, I am sorry. She is not here anymore. I think they have taken her._ "

" _Taken her where? You can track them, can't you? You must. Please?_ " Namuk said, while he grabbed Tsa'kan's arm with both his hands, and looked him straight in the eyes.

" _I can and I will, but we cannot stay out here all night. We will have to continue the search in the morning._ " Tsa'kan said calmly, while kneeling down to face his brother, and giving him a soft pat on the head.

Both remained silent for a while, disappointed that they hadn't found their sister, and scared of what might have happened to her. Namuk turned around to look at the night sky that was only partially visible through the jungle canopy.

" _Maybe the Blue Mother or one of her children knows where she went? They see everything._ " Namuk said, suddenly sounding full of hope.

" _They might see and they might know, but they are not going to tell us. They cannot speak. Only Eywa can speak to us, and she sees everything as well, maybe even clearer than them._ " Tsa'kan replied steadily. He was not speaking out of first-hand experience of course; he was merely recalling what the elders and Elynin had taught him.

Despite being told by his brother that the spheres were not going to tell them anything, Namuk kept staring at the sky, at the large blue one and the smaller grey ones. For a moment, he wondered to himself what it was like up there. What would those gigantic round creatures eat up there? How did they hunt? There were probably a hundred questions he wanted to ask.

* * *

Unknown to Namuk or any other Na'vi, one of the smaller grey spheres was playing host to several visitors at the moment. The grey sphere was in actuality one of the other moons of the planet Polyphemus. This particular moon had a grey and cratered surface, much like the Earth's moon. The moon's landscape was a dusty wasteland, without any water or air whatsoever. Nothing except perhaps the most toughened microorganisms could survive on the surface. Unlike some other similar moons of this type, it also did not have a subsurface ocean.

Several hours ago, a space station had been delivered by another interstellar vessel, known as the TISV Worker. This interstellar spacecraft was a refurbished RDA ISV, having been modified to tow large orbital cargos. Like the TISV Scouter that had arrived several days earlier, it had been painted black. Aside from the space station, it carried no other cargo of significance; it did not even carry any vehicles that could enter Pandora's atmosphere.

The space station was now in orbit around the barren moon. It was a large complex which, from a distance, looked somewhat like a dark grey castle with tall gothic spires. There were five spires in total, and these were dispersed over all five corners of the pentagonal shaped station. The Tempest used the designations "M-7" for the moon and "CHD-1" for the station. However, the latter was also known by an appropriate nickname: the Cathedral.

Aside from its five spires, the Cathedral had some other noteworthy features. It had several cylinders attached to what appeared to be the bottom of the castle structure. In reality, though, there was no real bottom in the space station. The cylinders rotated to emulate gravity, but the rest of the complex operated in zero-g.

The TISV Scouter had released one of its shuttles; the same one that had traveled to Pandora a few days earlier. This shuttle was making its way to the Cathedral, whilst carrying the UNOB-1 cone, as a part of phase two of Lockwood's mission.

Inside the station, in a room located in one of the revolving cylinders, the highest ranking member of the SD was standing near a large window. She had her arms crossed, and was staring out into space, seemingly in deep thought.

The supreme group leader was a tall woman with a trained physique. Her short hair had an unnatural dark red color due to the dye that had been applied to it. She had a scar on her forehead, which reached from her hairline down to the top of her right eye socket. Her right eyebrow was therefore split into two sections due to the scar tissue. Nevertheless, both of her green eyes were perfectly intact.

She was wearing the standard grey service uniform of an SD officer, but without a peaked cap. Quite a number of small and brightly colored rectangles decorated the left side of her chest. Both the left and the right collar patches of her jacket displayed the same rank insignia: A white skull in the middle of a black patch, surrounded by a white wreath in the shape of a horseshoe. It was not a traditional wreath, however, as this one was depicted as having been woven out of bones.

In the far left of the room, a metal door now slid open. A moment later, one of Lockwood's platoon members stepped into the room. She was a small woman with dark eyes and spiky black hair that did not reach further than her shoulders. It was Yijun, who had been ordered by Lockwood to replace him in his absence.

She had exchanged her field camouflage uniform for a regular grey service uniform much like the one the supreme group leader was wearing. Yijun did wear the uniform complete with a peaked cap, though. It seemed to be a brand new cap: grey on top with a silver braided cord below a black band, displaying both an emblem of the Tempest and an emblem of a skull with crossbones. Her right collar patch displayed the white letters "SD", while the one on her left displayed three white dots arranged in a diagonal line.

After stepping into the room, she immediately performed the Tempest salute, and spoke two words: "Hominum summa."

The supreme group leader only moved her eyes. "I was expecting someone quite a bit more… bald. But you are just as bold, no doubt." she said dryly.

Yijun answered in a neutral voice, devoid of any emotion. She spoke her words in a rapid pace. "Supreme group leader Vassileva, the package is aboard the station. Assault unit leader Lockwood was prevented from completing his mission. He appointed me as mission commander in his stead."

"No matter. I have… no need for that man anymore. You are the mountain sniper, are you not?" Vassileva answered quite nonchalantly and in a far more relaxed manner than Yijun.

Yijun was slightly surprised by her quick dismissal of Lockwood and her sudden personal interest in her. Nevertheless, she maintained her composure. "Ma'am, I am junior assault leader Yijun Liao, formerly assigned to the 3rd SD mountain regiment."

"I do have need for a replacement officer." Vassileva continued. "You can call yourself senior assault leader from now on. And if the package does what it is supposed to after being processed, you can expect another promotion."

Yijun felt very much honored by receiving not just one but potentially two promotions in rank. She could not hide the excitement in her voice. "Thank you, ma'am. May our great Leader Wilhelmus guide us to everlasting victory!"

Vassileva was somewhat less enthusiastic. "Yes, yes… I'm sure he will. But he should know guiding is not the only ingredient for achieving success. Some of us have to do actual work; you and I are no strangers to that."

Yijun, who would never think of speaking negatively of the Leader, was again surprised by the implications of Vassileva's words. She did not want to start an argument with the highest ranking member of their paramilitary organization, so she decided to answer in agreement. "…of course, ma'am." she said cautiously.

At that moment, a beeping sound could be heard coming from Vassileva. She dismissively tapped her wrist display several times, causing the beeping to stop. Yijun wondered to herself what it was about, but her thoughts were quickly interrupted as the supreme group leader resumed speaking.

"Right now, I have a hundred people working on this station, and that number is just those focusing on the planning and logistics of the coming operation. It will be the largest space expedition ever carried out in the history of humanity." she said, sounding quite proud.

Yijun felt that this sense of pride was something they had in common. This realization made her open up a bit more. "I have seen it in my dreams many times, supreme group leader. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen; the miracle weapon most of all." she said enthusiastically.

"And now you can see it for real, my dear. Let us meet here again in several days. I will send you a notice when the time is there. We can watch together, if you like." Vassileva said, with a suppressed smile, as she turned sideways to look at Yijun. This was the first time she made direct eye contact with her.

"I would be most honored, ma'am." Yijun announced proudly. A second later, Vassileva's wrist display resumed its beeping. It was just as quickly dismissed again. Yijun looked silently at the device for a moment, which Vassileva noticed.

"Don't worry about that. Some 'wise' men apparently forget to document the existence of an entire planet. I am letting them sweat for their mistake." she said as nonchalantly as ever.

* * *

Elsewhere aboard the space station, a group of uniformed scientists and commanding SD officers had gathered inside a grey and white conference room. All except one were seated at a round table.

The standing scientist, Dr. Manisha Singh, held a short speech. "My comrades, I believe all of you are aware of the recent discovery of Cosmos-34877. In order to quell rumors, here is what I can tell you about it. This apparently rogue planet entered the Alpha Centauri A star system from interstellar space sometime between the departure of the RDA and the arrival of TISV Scouter. This planet, or 'Shadow' as we call it, appears to be in the process of being captured in the orbit of the gas giant Polyphemus."

Before she could continue, someone in the room felt the need to interrupt her. "You gave it a name?" brigade leader Charles Hirschel, one of the higher officers, asked cynically.

Dr. Singh took the opportunity to resume her speech. "It seemed quite fitting, sir, because the planet appears to have gone a long time without any sunlight. It must be a harsh world. So far, our orbital probes have gathered enough information to confirm that despite the absence of a steady source of external light and heat, the planet has liquid water oceans."

"So, another Pandora, you are saying?" Hirschel asked, trying to sound just as cynical as before, but failing to masquerade the fact he finally seemed to be hearing something interesting.

"Unfortunately, not quite, sir." Dr. Singh replied. "You see, we have also detected a large amount of hydrocarbons in those oceans. Imagine an oil spill at sea on Earth, except thousands of times as severe. That is the current state of Shadow's oceans. We do not yet know how this came to be. But we do know the continents are barren, with strong winds and acidic rain. The atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, argon and methane, with small amounts of oxygen, carbon dioxide and various sulfur compounds. There were also some trace amounts of sulfur mustards found."

Dr. Singh paused for a moment to let the information sink in, before quickly resuming. "But, my comrades, despite the extraordinary situation of us being able to witness the arrival of a new planet in the system, this is not the only reason you have been called together. I think it is time we move on to the transmission from the planet." Dr. Singh said matter-of-factly. This last sentence caused a brief murmur to fill the room, which swiftly died down again.

"The TISV Scouter picked it up first, although the crew did not immediately realize where it had come from. Later, its origin was traced to the surface of the planet. After that, they had their signals specialist analyze it. Repeating patterns were quickly found, but the complete message was only decoded an hour ago." she revealed.

Dr. Singh finally seemed to have everyone's complete attention, as no one was tempted to ask her another question. Therefore, she continued in a steady pace. "It turned out that the message contained visual information encoded in an analog scanline format; much like our broadcast television system on Earth two hundred years ago."

She then made a quick hand gesture to one of her assistants, who darkened the room and activated the beamer. An eerie image appeared on the screen. The image area was oval, without any discernable corners like a human produced image normally had. The background was greyish and mostly contained seemingly random noise. Most noteworthy were the two black circles and a black curved line. It looked like an inverted smiley face, with eyes near the bottom of its face.

"I don't know what would be more disturbing: the idea of another intelligent species out there, or the fact that they would send us smiley faces." brigade leader Hirschel reacted. "And why is it upside down?"

"Sir, it might not be a smiley face at all." Dr. Singh countered. "At this point, it is unclear to us what we are dealing with. We are considering a wide variety of scenarios. We are even considering the scenario of an old probe or landing craft of human origin. Another species of aliens is certainly not on the top of our list of probable causes. In any case, I recommend sending our own landers down to investigate."

"Regardless, I say we consult the Leader on the matter, before we deviate from our primary objective." Hirschel insisted stubbornly. He then turned to face his adjutant. "Find out when Wilhelmus is scheduled to arrive. Now."


	8. Arrival

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Arrival**

It was early in the morning. The sun had risen, and the daily routine had already commenced for the Omaticaya clan. However, soon after waking, the clan was surprised by an unannounced visit. A small delegation from another clan had arrived on horseback.

The first visitor was Olo'eyktan Mayran of the Avuneyra clan. He was an older male, with greying hair, a small animal bone through his nose, and prominent scars scattered over of his body. He was wearing a tanned animal hide around his shoulders. A yellow silhouette of a Prolemuris was painted on it.

The second one was Selyat, a hunter from the same clan. She was a younger female, slender and agile, with pitch-black hair in many small braids. The left side of her head was completely shaven. The only indications she had ever been in a fight, were her fresh but minor wounds, which were now mostly covered up by leaves as a type of bandaging.

The Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya and former human and Avatar driver, Jake Sully, was quickly informed of the unexpected visitors. Together with his mate and future Tsahìk of the Omaticaya, Neytiri, he went to receive them.

Although most clans usually did not interact much with each other, the prospect of one clan visiting another was seen nowadays as an honor, and less as an event that could lead to war. The memory of the war with the humans of the RDA was still on the minds of many Na'vi. This fact certainly helped foster a feeling of them being one single people, instead of many separate clans. Another fact which helped in this area was that Jake Sully was still seen as Toruk Makto by some, even though he had given up his mount and the title many years ago.

From the moment Jake saw the looks on the faces of his visitors, he knew it was going to be a bad day. When they sat down together and Mayran explained the reason for the visit, Jake was anything but surprised. The humans had returned. Though he had once believed they would never return, a part of him had always dreaded what would happen when they did.

After Mayran gave the word to Selyat, Jake was bombarded with detailed information. A shuttle had dropped soldiers. She had attacked the soldiers, because they had started shooting first. Her ikran had been killed. They had also killed a palulukan. She had barely escaped with her life.

Next, she unfolded a piece of cloth, and explained she had seen a symbol on the body of the human shuttle. She had attempted to reproduce the symbol with paint in the hope Jake would know what it meant.

Jake took the piece of cloth in his hands and let his eyes scan the symbol. It was a big white circle, with a smaller black circle in the middle, which was surrounded by four black zigzagging lines. For a moment, he had to think if he recognized it from somewhere. He believed he had seen it once, although he wasn't entirely sure. His memories of his life as a human were most difficult to recall. He supposed he could recall some more if he tried harder, but he really didn't want to.

This symbol was not the logo of any large organization he knew of, this much was clear to him. Whatever organization was attacking them, it didn't really matter. The humans were the aggressors once again. They had not learned anything. They shouldn't be allowed to gain a foothold on Pandora again, of that he was certain. Jake put down the logo, and broke the silence by addressing his visitors.

" _Olo'eyktan Mayran, I thank you. It is clear to me the Sky People have returned and that they do not seek peace. I ask you to prepare your warriors and spread the word. I will do the same. When you are asked by the other clans who is calling upon them, you should tell them that Toruk Makto has returned._ " Jake said with a mixture of pride and concern. He did not want another war, but he saw no other option in the face of these events. He would have to become once again what he had been during the war with the RDA, and he did not like it.

When he made this announcement, Mayran and Selyat cheered, but the people of the Omaticaya clan were somewhat less enthusiastic. A brief murmur could be heard. Neytiri turned to face him.

" _Jake… we do not want you to leave. You are a father now. There must be someone else who can lead this time._ " Neytiri said to him with quite some dread and worry in her voice.

Jake took both her wrists in his hands. " _Neytiri, I have to do this. We must face them now, or they will never stop. I have no choice._ "

He paused for a moment as they looked into each other's eyes. Then, he broke the silence once again. " _I trust you. I ask you to fly out to the old base to tell Max and Norm to search the sky. I need to know how many are coming and where they are landing. In the meantime, I will go hunt for toruk. It is the only way._ "

* * *

Outer space around Pandora had been relatively calm and peaceful over the past few days, despite the earlier arrival of two interstellar vehicles and a space station. This state was about to change drastically.

Even more interstellar vehicles were now exiting deep space. The first one was the TISV Protector. Like the other TISVs of the Tempest, its hull had been painted black, though the red glow of the radiators was still visible. It looked heavily packed; it carried a large number of conically-shaped containers.

The next one to arrive was the TISV Caretaker, which had a comparable appearance. However, it was also packed with about half a dozen shuttles which were capable of entering an atmosphere.

Third to arrive was the TISV Conqueror, which carried many containers, like the Protector. It also carried what appeared to be smaller shuttles, which had the appearance of fighter jets. There were at least a dozen of them attached to the hull.

The fourth one was the TISV Tractor. This interstellar vehicle was quite unlike the ones that had arrived so far. It was a refurbished version of one of the oldest RDA vehicles. This one was still using cold superconductors, from a time when humanity had not yet set foot on Pandora. Therefore, it was about double the size of the others, with very large and prominent radiators. Perhaps even more noteworthy was the cargo it was carrying.

A gigantic disk with a diameter of about 2.5 kilometers was attached to the hull of this TISV. The disk was a concave mirror with a kind of tower complex in the middle. It was probably the largest moving object ever constructed by humanity. The TISV Tractor followed a different trajectory compared to the other vehicles. It was making its way to the moon M-7, towards the Cathedral, while the others headed for Pandora.

The last vehicle to arrive from deep space was the TISV White Walrus. It was newly built, unlike the other TISVs. The radiators were smaller and less prominent, and its frame was much wider and sturdier. It had room for around three times as much cargo as a regular TISV, and it was packed to its limits with containers and shuttles. This vehicle was known in the organization of the Tempest as the flagship of the fleet. It was also the ship which was bringing their Leader to Pandora.

Within several hours, the large concave disk had been deployed in an orbit around the moon M-7. During that time, all seven TISVs, including the Scouter and the Worker, had assumed a parking orbit around Pandora. No shuttles were launched. For a time, there was no visible activity. It was as if they were waiting for something. However, the silence would not last forever. A violent storm was about to come to Pandora. In the context of the situation, this was inevitable.

A single shuttle ferried a processed and refined incarnation of the UNOB-1 cone a short distance from the Cathedral to the concave disk. In the meantime, the disk had gradually started to come to life. Antennae had unfolded, lights had turned on, and it had begun making test movements along all three of its axes. After the shuttle docked with the tower in the center of the disk, all tests were temporarily halted.

The tower structure did not have any rotating features of itself, therefore no gravity was emulated. The personnel inside the tower moved around using magnetic boots and magnetized floor surfaces. However, most personnel were assigned to a fixed location in order to do their work. This was no different for the personnel in the large octagonal chamber near the bottom of the tower.

This chamber was very dimly lit. Most light came from the countless computer screens at the various workstations. The light was mostly purple, red and green. There were eight people in the chamber, located at each of the eight workstations. All were wearing black uniforms with face-obscuring helmets that were seemingly without visors. The helmets were unusually shaped; they were round, except for the mouth area, where there was a beak-like protrusion. The forehead and eye-area of such a helmet was covered completely with a Tempest logo.

"Chief gunner, the install team reports the superconductor has been installed. Station and weapon should be fully operational now. Commencing final diagnostic checkout." one of the operators in the room suddenly announced. This message was directed at chief assault leader Pete Mulholland of the SD, who was fulfilling the role of chief gunner. The latter was seated at the 12 o'clock position inside the chamber.

"Chief gunner, you may proceed. Fire when ready." another voice said over the radio. This voice belonged to Governor Rodolfo Barros, a higher official who was in charge of the entire TSG station. He was located on the upper floors, well away from the weapon control chamber.

Chief gunner Mulholland waited a few seconds, and then addressed his crew. "Operators, give me the status of the subsystems." He then proceeded to address each operator individually, which was to be followed by an immediate answer by said operator.

"Station diagnostics"

"Go"

"Weapon diagnostics"

"Standby… go"

"Navigation and targeting"

"Position stable, target locked, go"

"Mirror control"

"Interval at one minute, go"

"Shutters and beam dump"

"Go"

"Diamond windows"

"Shiny and ready to go"

"Safety system"

"All secure, go"

Chief gunner Mulholland then gave the final order in a procedure which would demonstrate that the TSG station was fully operational and ready to be deployed. "Command is go. Commence sequence. Align primary mirror."

* * *

Toruk Makto had returned. Jake had landed his toruk on a flat surface on top of a large floating mountain. He had momentarily separated himself from his clan and the rest of the Na'vi. Now, he was quietly looking out over the jungle and the horizon. The sun was already starting to set. A bright orange light engulfed him and his surroundings.

Unlike the first time he had tamed such a magnificent beast, he did not feel ecstatic. Instead, he felt gloomy. The world was so calm now, like it had been for many years. Would these be the last days he would be seeing a free Pandora? A part of him wanted to see the positive side of things. They had beaten the humans before; they were going to do it again. However, he did not know when, where, or how many would be coming, or what kind of weapons they were willing to use this time. He realized that by having himself and his people cut off from the humans, they had no idea just what had been brewing all these years on that grey world called Earth.

He looked at the orange sky and wondered if he could have made a different choice somewhere along the path he had taken, which would not have led them to this situation. What more could he have done to keep the humans from unleashing their aggression towards Pandora once again? He was not sure.

At least he had managed to get a few peaceful years for his people. At least he had been a loving partner and a caring father. Also, over the past few years, he had done an attempt at centralizing clan politics and introducing human-inspired political concepts. This way, the Na'vi would be less likely to return to inter-clan warfare in case he was no longer around to lead them.

The northern clans had elected an inter-clan leader. The southern clans had done the same. The two leaders, Ne'swonimh from the north, and Siem'yethiu from the south would be his deputies in the coming confrontation. One of them would replace him if he was no longer able to lead. However, Jake was not planning on letting that happen any time soon.

* * *

The night was like any other; peaceful, brightly colored, and with the usual night predators out hunting for their prey. The morning was quite different.

The RDA Extra-Solar Colony #01, also known by its informal name of Hell's Gate, had remained largely intact over the years. The few humans who had been allowed to remain on Pandora had been using a section of the base mainly as a research center.

The refinery and other manufacturing plants had been shut down years ago and were in disrepair and partly overgrown by the jungle. The main building, the concrete airfield and the surrounding perimeter fence were mostly intact and not overgrown; evidently those parts of the complex were still being maintained by the small number of caretakers. Nevertheless, sections of the fence had been breached, and the defense towers did not look like they were up to their old task.

The mining pit had been abandoned. Small sections of it appeared to have been filled in and reclaimed by the jungle. It was still a large open hole in the surface, however. The gigantic bucket wheel excavator machines were partially buried in the ground, but they were still quite visible from above.

Selyat, the first Na'vi to have encountered the new group of invading humans, was stalking the skies above the base on her new ikran. She had been so eager to confront the humans, that right after the meeting with Jake Sully, and despite her wounds, she had gone to do the Iknimaya ritual a second time. She was one of the few of her clan to have attempted the ritual, but she was the only one to have done it twice. Naturally, she had succeeded both times.

At first she thought it was the sound of the wind. Then she briefly believed she was hearing thunder. The sound, which was ever increasing in volume, turned out to be coming from several unknown flying objects directly above her. They were shooting down at an incredible speed. It was as if they had come out of nothingness.

She watched carefully as the objects appeared to be slowing down and taking on a different trajectory. There were six of them in total. She realized these things were neither shuttles, nor gunships. They looked like large arrowheads and they had a speed which suited their shape. In fact, she was certain that any arrow she fired could never attain the speed at which these things were moving; they were that fast.

After they turned around in a wide circle and started heading back towards the base, she could see small pieces falling from the vehicles. She had a bad feeling about it. The pieces were shiny, elongated objects with two pointy ends. They tumbled around uncontrollably before they disappeared into the trees below them. Everything they touched and more was subsequently engulfed in flames.

" _Monsters!_ " Selyat yelled in anger. The suddenness and brutality of it were beyond her comprehension. But this would only be the beginning.

Again and again, the six flying arrowheads turned around and dropped more of the same type of firebomb. Selyat had trouble keeping track of them, due to their tremendous speed. Nevertheless, she quickly deduced that each of the vehicles appeared to be focusing on a specific area. All of them appeared to be trying to cut off the base from the surroundings, by creating a circular wall of fire. Soon, there was fire and smoke everywhere around her no matter where she looked.

At a certain point, about half of the vehicles appeared to switch to another type of bomb. They then began targeting the trees inside the circle of fire. The bombs they dropped did not produce balls of fire. Instead, quick pressure bursts leveled everything in their path, resulting in debris and smoke filling the air.

The other half of the group started focusing on the base defenses. A multitude of missiles were launched at the towers and other points of defense. Although the towers did not look like they still operated, some of them actually fired back. Despite this, they were still taken out relatively easy and without causing any notable damage to the attackers.

As quickly as it had begun, the entire attack suddenly stopped. The arrowhead vehicles scattered. Some started to head back up into the sky. There was one which started to head into her direction. It was so fast, that Selyat could hardly react before it shot past her and her ikran with the sounds of thunder and a high-pitched screech. Although it had passed overhead about thirty meters above her, she was almost knocked off her mount by the sheer pressure of the wind. After the vehicle passed her, it too started to climb in altitude.

In a flash, she had seen on the underside of this vehicle the same symbol she had seen on the shuttle a few days earlier. She immediately felt it was odd that it would pass so close to her whilst not attacking such an obvious target. It was almost as if it had been taunting her, by showing her this symbol again.

Selyat knew it would to pointless to try to follow them. Instead, she steered her mount towards the destroyed forest and the edge of the fires, in the hope she could be of some more use there. At least there were no villages so close to the base, but this did not mean no one needed help.

Soon after the bombers had departed, an alarming number of objects began to appear in the sky. Dozens of cone-shaped metal things rained down onto the concrete airfield of the base and onto the surrounding bombed jungle area. They did not crash into the ground, as one would expect a falling rock to do from such a height. Instead, the conical objects appeared to shoot fire from their undersides, slowing their descent at the last moment, and landing on their own legs.

By this time, shuttles of various sizes had also come down from the sky. Some descended onto the base, while others kept flying around in circles. One shuttle unleashed miniature versions of itself which started buzzing around like insects.

Next, the conical objects opened up as if they were hatching eggs. They unleashed soldiers, ground vehicles and gunships. Most soldiers grabbed onto supports on the outsides of the vehicles, and were subsequently transported directly to the main building of the base.

Selyat realized how unprepared the Na'vi were for any of this. Sure, they had a lot of warriors, and some of them had quite some experience fighting the humans. If only they had been in position to defend the base. Then perhaps they could have done something to prevent this. Now the humans had taken back their old base virtually without any opposition, giving them an immediate advantage.

Maybe it was not too late to do something. Selyat knew she had to go back to Toruk Makto to report what she had seen so that they could plan a counterattack. There was nothing more she could do here right now. Going in there by herself would only lead to her death.

As she was leaving the area, she looked back a final time. The soldiers had now forced a door open and were pouring inside. More soldiers poured out from various shuttles. They were swarming the base like angry ants.


	9. The star gun

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: The star gun**

"Tell that pilot to move his shuttle to sector 3. And get those APCs to the perimeter; they're useless over there. We have to make way; the Leader is coming in." a high ranking officer on the grounds of Hell's Gate ordered his junior officers.

Senior group leader Jean Babatunde was in charge of overseeing and facilitating the arrival of the Leader Wilhelmus on Pandora. He did not understand why the Leader insisted on coming down here himself. Many times he had tried to persuade the Leader to stay in orbit until they had properly established a base and suitable defenses. All scans that had been made so far indicated that no indigenous army was waiting for them. Nevertheless, Babatunde did not want to think about what would happen should the Leader fall.

"Thorpe! I don't want to see that ugly mug of yours when the Leader touches down. Move your ass to the perimeter to support Delta Company. And don't even think of pointing that thing at me!" Babatunde shouted. The person he was ordering around wore standard armor and camouflage like most other troops. However, instead of being armed with a rifle, the man was wielding a longbow as if it were a standard-issue weapon.

Within minutes, a large black shuttle had appeared in the vicinity of the airfield. It was being escorted by three Star Hunters, multirole jetfighters capable of both orbital and atmospheric operations.

Soon, the shuttle had touched down. In the meantime, Babatunde had gathered a small garrison of troops and officers to stand at attention in two straight lines opposite each other at the sides of the shuttle ramp. In a manner of speaking, they were the welcoming party.

The ramp slowly lowered itself. Babatunde did a quick final check of his surroundings. There were defenses in every corner. He convinced himself that nothing hostile was going to get in here.

Once the ramp was fully down, four troops with black uniforms quickly marched out of the shuttle and past Babatunde. They were immediately followed by the Leader, who maintained a somewhat slower walking pace, but with large strides nonetheless. Babatunde hailed his Leader with the Tempest salute and accompanying words. "Hominum summa" he said proudly, with his chin up.

Babatunde was a taller-than-average man, but he still had to look upwards in order to make eye contact with the Leader as he addressed him. "My Leader, everything is proceeding as planned. If anything, we are ahead of schedule."

"Good. Very good. I wish to proceed with our diplomatic meeting at once." Wilhelmus said in a deep voice. Nevertheless, he sounded as if he was taking a leisurely stroll through a flower garden.

As expected, he was wearing his trademark beige quasi-military uniform with a black armband with the Tempest logo. The uniform seemed to be somewhat more padded than usual, however. It appeared that he was wearing armor like his troops. His transparent breathing mask was integrated with his helmet. The helmet was a shiny silver ceremonial military helmet with a single silver spike on the top. His white-haired walrus moustache was prominently visible behind the transparent mask.

"My Leader, the broadcast system is not set up yet… It… it was not scheduled until half an hour from now." Babatunde stumbled nervously.

"It is not?!" Wilhelmus suddenly roared. He looked at Babatunde with his bright blue eyes widened as if he had just been personally insulted. Just as sudden, he threw his head back and burst into jolly laughter.

"Jean… I thought you knew me by now. You should have seen the look on your face. You did not mess up the plan. You have it all under control, just as I expected. You need to relax a little." Wilhelmus said with a smile as he put a hand on Babatunde's shoulder. "Everything will work out in the end, I'm sure. I have faith in our people."

Within half an hour, an improvised system of electronic speakers had been set up around the perimeter of Hell's Gate. Numerous gunships, the same type as the RDA had used, only painted black, had also been equipped with speakers. The gunships patrolled the edge of the perimeter. All speakers began playing a pre-recorded message featuring Wilhelmus speaking in the Na'vi language.

" _Respected people of this world, we have returned from the sky to humbly ask for your help. Our people are dying. The rocks in your ground can save them. We would like to reach an agreement that can benefit us all. We are aware that we left you as enemies, but we are a different people now. To end all hostilities, we propose that our leaders as well as yours shall have a meeting to discuss the terms for a truce between our peoples._ "

The pre-recorded voice of someone else then proceeded to explain the location and time the meeting was supposed to take place. It also gave several conditions, such as a limited amount of guards and weapons for each side. Afterwards, the message started over again from the beginning, in an infinite loop.

Several hours later, Wilhelmus, together with Jean Babatunde and several aides, troops and officers had set up a temporary outpost outside the bombed perimeter and outside of the protection of the base. It was a location about twenty meters away from the edge of the old quarry, near a flat rock formation. The tree line was much receded in this area, thus allowing for banshee riders to land in the large open area if needed.

Multiple APCs, trailers and gunships had formed half a circle around the large rectangular table in the middle of the clearing. Wilhelmus and Babatunde were seated at one side, with the remaining larger seats at the opposite side open for the Na'vi leaders.

"My Leader, if I may be frank, I cannot help but feel we are sitting ducks here. We don't know what they're going to do. They could crush us here if they really wanted to. What about their arrows?" Babatunde declared with a sweaty forehead and with genuine concern in his voice.

"If they decide to make a mess of things, the Star Gun will wipe it clean. Barros has his orders, and he does not ever disobey." Wilhelmus told him without any hit of worry, before he decided give a small speech as a warm-up exercise for himself.

"No Jean, I will not leave this place. A true Leader is willing to put his life on the line for his people. If I die today, the willpower of our people will reach new and unparalleled heights. If you are having second thoughts about this situation, then by all means, go. I won't hold it against you; you have my word. Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to meeting this paraplegic marine corporal turned Na'vi savior."

Babatunde looked at all the other people here. In his eyes, they were all nobodies. They were either civilians, or low ranking SD members. And yet, they were standing here silently, willing to sacrifice their lives for their Leader if needed. If he would flee now, it didn't matter who he was. These nobodies would then have proven they had more courage than him, a senior group leader in the SD. Babatunde did not want this kind of a stain on his reputation. Therefore, he remained where he was, silently.

Just when Babatunde began to think that no-one was going to show up, apart from a few lone banshee rider scouts in the distance, a formation of about fifteen to twenty flying creatures could be spotted. As they drew closer, it was apparent that all of the creatures were being ridden by Na'vi.

Jake was the first one to touch down with his brightly red and orange colored great leonopteryx. The size and apparent strength and ferocity of his mount surprised and impressed many if not all of the humans. Babatunde grabbed the sides of his chair and gritted his teeth like his life depended on it. Wilhelmus didn't move and simply made a face that involved wrinkling the forehead and turning down the corners of his closed mouth.

One by one, the other Na'vi landed with their banshees. Most of them remained mounted as they suspiciously looked into the direction of the band of humans up ahead. Only two of them dismounted. Both were older males, who wore a lot of ornamental bones, feathers, and other decorations. One of them was missing an eye.

Jake and the two other Na'vi approached the table together. They looked very serious. The human congregation didn't seem to impress them. Jake did not find it hard to spot the leader of them; it had to be the one with the audaciously bombastic beige outfit with a shiny helmet and a white-haired walrus-like appearance.

" _Welcome, my friends. Feel free to sit down. I am certain we have a lot to catch up on._ " Wilhelmus spoke in the Na'vi language as he gestured towards the table and the chairs. His accent was very noticeable.

"Cut the crap. Give me one good reason not to have you killed on the spot." Jake replied without even attempting to be polite. It appeared he had not forgotten his old language.

Wilhelmus' smile disappeared instantly. "I could ask a traitor the same thing." he said in return, sternly. "I recommend you do not test my patience. You wish to negotiate or not?"

Jake raised his arms beside his body, with the palms of his hands turned upwards. It was quite clear he was agitated. "What is there to negotiate? We sent you away because of all the killing and destruction. Then you come back. The first things you do: attack a hunter, bomb and burn our forest and capture peaceful scientists."

"You have my personal apologies for those attacks. Unfortunately, those were a necessary evil. I am the one responsible. My people are only following my lead. And we did put out those fires, as you can see." Wilhelmus elaborated calmly, while gesturing vaguely into the direction of the forest. The ring of fire had indeed been extinguished, but there was still a lot of smoke in the area.

Jake glared silently at the insolent human for a moment. His upper lip twitched briefly before it appeared he was reaching for his knife. However, he was immediately stopped by Siem'yethiu, the Na'vi with only one eye, who grabbed his lower arm.

" _Jake Sully! Control yourself! What do you think will happen to all of us if you kill him?_ " Siem'yethiu hissed into Jake's ear.

"Yes, corporal, what do you think will happen?" Wilhelmus interjected, confirming for all Na'vi present that not only could he speak some words in their language, he could also understand what they were saying to each other. He then made use of the momentary silence to move straight to business.

"Enough with the pleasantries. This is my offer. We will not attack you. We will leave you alone as much as possible, just the way you like it. We'll even release those scientists you care so much for. Nevertheless, you **will** help us mitigate our dependence on the superconductor rocks you have in your ground. We will need a lot of those rocks in the beginning. The eventual goal is that we do not need them at all. For this to happen, humanity needs time. Once that time has passed, we will have no further business here. We need ten to fifteen years, and then we shall leave this world completely. You have my word." Wilhelmus told them.

Jake couldn't believe the absurdities he was hearing. "You must be out of your mind if you think we care about your problem. What makes you think we would help you by destroying our own home?" he retorted bluntly.

"A pity." Wilhelmus said, as he looked at the ground. "There is something I've always wondered about the Na'vi, though. You thrive during the nighttime. Your eyes are suited to it. So don't you ever get trouble during the day? Isn't the sun too bright for you?"

"You should really worry about your own problems, because from here it looks like you have more than a few." Jake continued in the same tone as before.

"Forget about our problems for a moment. I want to take this opportunity to present you all with a gift." Wilhelmus said as he made a quick hand gesture over his shoulder. Several of his aides, men and women in beige fatigues, walked forward and gently put several gold colored flat sheets onto the table. Wilhelmus proceeded to slide the sheets over the table into the direction of the Na'vi.

"With these in front of your eyes, you will never be bothered by the sun again." Wilhelmus said, smiling. "Try them out if you like. And pass some to your shy friends over there. It's very interesting material. You can cut or bend it into goggles in whatever shape or style you like."

Siem'yethiu was the first one to touch the material. He ran his fingers over the smooth surface, before picking up one sheet. He studied the gold surface for a moment and then turned it around, curious about why he couldn't see through it. Only from the other side could he see through the material. He widened his one eye in amazement as he saw the world in a dark blue hue. Quickly, he turned to face the sun. The sheet seemed to adjust itself to the increase of light intensity.

" _Most interesting. Have a look at this._ " he said to the warriors still mounted on their banshees, as he tossed them a few of the sheets. Jake and the other inter-clan leader, Ne'swonimh, refused to touch any of the sheets, however.

"Do you think you can bribe us?" Ne'swonimh asked in the human language, but with a noticeable accent. He was not agitated like Jake was. Instead, he appeared amused at the notion that after all the human – Na'vi interactions of the past, a human would still think they could be bribed.

"I do not make such presumptions. I would just like to help you get through a **sunny afternoon** like this one." Wilhelmus said, with a curious accentuation on two specific words. His transparent faceplate and those of the other humans suddenly turned golden. An air raid siren could then be heard wailing in the distance, as if a nuclear bomb was about to fall.

In a flash, the sky turned white. All sounds of the jungle seemed to disappear for a few seconds. The Na'vi who happened to be holding the golden sheets, now instinctively held them up in front of their faces. Jake was forced to cover his eyes with his forearm. Those who had their vision protected could see a vertical beam of white light in the distance. It was not clear where it had come from: from the sky, or from the ground. But it was far from natural, that much was evident.

After several seconds, the beam of light disappeared again. The banshees and the great leonopteryx had become restless. Some were screeching in panic. One of the rider-less banshees even flew away.

The Na'vi were more confused than panicked. Only Jake seemed to comprehend what was going on. He made a lunge for Wilhelmus, knife in hand. He did not get very far. Both Ne'swonimh and Siem'yethiu quickly restrained him.

About twenty of Wilhelmus' guards and aides were aiming their weapons in defense of their Leader. The machinegun turrets on the APCs were now also aimed at Jake. Even Babatunde had drawn his pistol. Naturally, the Na'vi warriors on their banshees had drawn their bows, with arrows pointing at the humans.

Wilhelmus was the first to break the silence. "You are nothing but a rabid dog. The actual Na'vi have more sense than you do." he said dismissively. "I did not like to be forced to do this, but you left me no other choice. That was not a bomb; it was **our** god. The light from your own sun was turned against you. It was concentrated at a specific point in your ocean. It was a very short and restrained burst. A few fish may have died."

Wilhelmus paused momentarily, seemingly to gloat. He now had a wide devilish sort of grin. "Would you like to find out what happens to your home if the burst time is set to infinite? Attack us here and now, and you will know. The choice is yours."

When his audience momentarily remained silent, he changed his expression back to a more grandfatherly smile. "All I ask of your people is to endure our presence on your world for fifteen years. There doesn't have to be a war. No one has to die. The weapons we bring are weapons to enforce the peace. I would be thankful if I were in your position." He then gestured for his troops to lower their weapons, which they promptly did. Siem'yethiu made a quick nod towards their own warriors, and got them to lower their weapons also, albeit slowly and with more caution.

In the meantime, Jake appeared to have calmed down somewhat. Still, he wasn't going to keep quiet. "So that's what that symbol means. You say something, yet you do the opposite. It means you are a bunch of liars."

Babatunde, who had remained silent since the arrival of the Na'vi, now felt the need to intervene. "Silence! You clearly have no idea who you are talking to. This is the Leader and Secretary-General of the United Nations under the Tempest."

"Thank you, that's quite enough." Wilhelmus said in a low volume, interrupting Babatunde. The former then resumed speaking to Jake and the Na'vi. "I am merely a Leader and you can call me Wilhelmus."

Then, he pointed a finger at the logo on the black armband around his upper left arm. "This is the new symbol of humanity. The black dot in the middle represents Tempest Primus, or Earth, as we used to call it. It is black because it represents our dying people. The sparks around it show that we are still full of energy. We will not give up. We will not stop until a utopia is created for all of humanity. We are united. And you, my friends, helped to make it all happen when you exiled the poor old RDA from this world. When utopia is reached someday… the Tempest will no longer be needed." Wilhelmus explained.

As he spoke the last sentence, it sounded as if he was looking forward to that day, even though the idea seemed far too idealistic to ever become reality.

"So, I ask you once again: do you wish to negotiate or not?" Wilhelmus inquired with a frown on his face.

Siem'yethiu, the one-eyed inter-clan leader, took place at one of the empty seats at the table, thoroughly shocking Jake and the other Na'vi.

" _I believe it is in everyone's best interest that we work together. Peace is better than war. We got our vengeance last time we went to war. I agree with the Sky People. We have to think about what is best for our people and our home on the long term._ " he said, sounding relieved he had finally spoken his mind. He then looked directly at Wilhelmus and declared: "The south accepts your offer. We will help you."

Jake was astounded by what was happening here. He slammed his hand onto the table and verbally lashed out to his ally. " _Siem'yethiu, have you completely lost it? I do not know why I ever trusted you. Do you even speak for your people?_ " He did not get the reaction he was hoping for.

" _Years ago, I discussed with my people the probability the Sky People would return, and in what kind of way they would likely be returning. We could think of several different scenarios. For each of those, we reached an agreement about what we would do. In general, everyone agreed we did not want more killing. If this means we have to do something new, something unexpected, something against tradition, then it shall be so. So yes, I am speaking for my people. Can you say the same?_ " Siem'yethiu said coolly.

" _Siem'yethiu, you are making a grave mistake._ " Ne'swonimh interjected. He wore a facial expression comparable to Wilhelmus' grandfatherly smile, as he spoke in a relatively soft voice.

" _Eywa is with us. This is our home. No one will take it from us, not even a piece of it. Of course they will try, and of course warriors will fall on both sides. But do not forget there are more of us than there are of them. They cannot travel here in large populations; Jake Sully has assured me of that. They have not even begun to witness what we can do. We will make it hard for them; fight in a way their weapons are not effective. And we will find new ways to destroy their weapons. We will go on and on until they are tired and give up. Then we will have won. If the south is against us, we will take care of that too._ "

Ne'swonimh ended his monologue by widening his grin whilst eyeing Wilhelmus. He then glanced at Siem'yethiu in the same way.

The Na'vi banshee riders reacted to his last statement. The ones loyal to Ne'swonimh turned their arrows on the ones loyal to Siem'yethiu. Soon the band of riders was divided, with two opposing sides pointing arrows at each other. Only the few riders from the Omaticaya clan did not choose any side.

Enough was enough for Jake. " _Stop this! I am Toruk Makto. The clans were united a long time ago. You are both out of line._ " he called out to both inter-clan leaders.

Siem'yethiu protested. " _You were the one to teach us the rule of the people, your_ 'democracy'. _My people did not choose Toruk Makto to lead them; they chose me. So the influence of Toruk Makto is fading steadily. Your clan may have accepted your leadership, but you do not rule over every one of us, Jake Sully._ "

Ne'swonimh also had something to say on the matter. " _Careful, Jake Sully. Alliances are always temporary. Nothing is cast into stone. Together with the north, I will work against both Siem'yethiu and the Sky People. You must decide what you stand for._ "

Realizing that a rift between these two was inevitable and that his influence over them had diminished drastically, Jake closed his eyes momentarily and sighed. Various things were on his mind. He thought about Neytiri, his children, his clan and the apparent mistakes he had made.

Then, he made clear what his intentions were. " _Fine. Do whatever you like. I am going home. If the situation gets dire enough, perhaps you will all realize we have to stand together. Toruk Makto will be waiting for Eywa's call._ " And with that, he walked away, mounted his toruk, and left the meeting. The Omaticaya warriors quickly followed him, as did Ne'swonimh and his faction.

Wilhelmus stood up to extend his hand towards Siem'yethiu, who recognized the gesture. Human and Na'vi shook hands. They would now be discussing the exact terms of the truce.

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **I hope this chapter dealing mostly with politics wasn't too off-putting. It was something I felt I had to explain firsthand, as this outcome will be a major influence in the lives of the main characters. The story will not be focusing on Jake anymore from this point onwards (until perhaps the very end of this story). Wilhelmus will remain a recurring character, but he will not become the main focus of the narrative.**


	10. Destiny

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Destiny**

Activity at the mountain bunker had been minimal over the past few days. Lockwood's squad had set up their motion detectors and wireless cameras in the area near the façade of the complex. One such camera was aimed at the place they were keeping Elynin, their captive Na'vi.

Elynin had to stay outdoors, which was something she preferred anyway over being locked inside the bunker. Her left ankle had been chained to the thickest and sturdiest tree in the vicinity. The chain had a length of almost fifteen meters, so she had a small range of freedom. The idea was that if there was an immediate danger, Elynin could climb into one of the trees to hide or protect herself until the humans could eliminate the threat.

An improvised hammock, made from an old grey canvas, was tied between two other trees near the façade of the bunker, so that she could sleep off the ground. A second canvas had been tied a bit higher, so she would have some kind of shade against the direct sunlight.

This almost luxurious position for their captive left Astrid and Ralf a bit irritable. After all, it had been Charlie who had suggested all these things to Lockwood. His reasoning was that their captive wouldn't give them much information if she didn't feel safe. Joseph had agreed with him. Therefore, Lockwood had accepted it, but in the end the required work had landed on the to-do list of both Astrid and Ralf.

The latter two were currently in the forward storage room. They were seated opposite each other at a table. Several playing cards were on the table surface, while both Ralf and Astrid were holding cards as well. However, Ralf was quite distracted from their game.

Every thirty seconds or so, he looked at his wrist display, to watch a camera feed from outside. Visible on the screen were Charlie, Joseph and their captive. They appeared to be having a conversation of some sort, with Joseph acting as a translator.

"You gonna try this time, or should I declare myself the winner already?" Astrid inquired a bit cynically. "It's not a game if I win all the time."

"I can't stand it." Ralf mumbled. "I don't trust them with each other. Charlie hasn't been himself. All he can think about these days is that damn native. She's manipulating him, probably to get him to set her free." he said suspiciously, revealing his wild theory.

"Jealous, are we?" Astrid started with a hint of teasing in her voice. "How typical. Your boyfriend has grown tired of you, and you blame an alien."

Ralf wasn't amused. "Ha, ha." he mock laughed. "I really fall off my chair laughing each time you make such a joke." he continued in the same irritated voice.

Whilst staring at the wall that was still decorated by the black flag with the Tempest logo, he suddenly spoke his mind. "Charlie and I have known each other since high school. When both our families were gone, we joined the SD to get justice, together, as brothers-in-arms. We weren't good for anything else. That's the way I see it."

"So?" Astrid shrugged. "I'm not your therapist. You're being boring. Quit griping, or I'll shut that mouth of yours." she threatened. She said it with a grin, however, making the threat seem somewhat less serious.

When Ralf looked at his wrist display again, Astrid had had enough of it. She dropped her cards and grabbed Ralf's arm with both her hands, quickly undoing the wrist strap and taking the device from him. Next, she grabbed the collar of her shirt, and let the device fall inside.

"There." she said victoriously. "If you want it back, you'll have to take it from me first." She added, as she quickly got to her feet. Ralf remained silent as he looked at her in a confused state. He thought he could see some kind of sparkle in her light blue eyes.

She quasi-innocently walked around the room for a bit. "You said it yourself: you were supposed to be the banshee wrestler. Well, I challenge you!" she announced quite unexpectedly.

Ralf was now triggered. He suddenly snapped fully awake and got up from the table. "I **am** the banshee wrestler. Nobody dares to challenge me. Nobody! Anybody who does, is going to learn the hard way." he said, full of pride and fury.

"So come on then. Or are you just blowing hot air?" Astrid yelled, as she took off and disappeared into one of the corridors.

"You! You've stirred up the beast now." Ralf called out as he ran after her.

* * *

Outside the bunker, Elynin and Charlie were having their first conversation in which they could understand each other's words, albeit with the help of Joseph. The two were sitting on the ground opposite each other. Joseph was standing stiffly beside them, like some kind of referee.

Elynin was still a bit unnerved by Joseph's unusual appearance and demeanor, but Charlie's presence calmed her. If he trusted this particularly strange human, she guessed that she would be open to trust whomever he trusted.

Charlie didn't know that Elynin was slightly bothered by Joseph's presence. He was just excited that he was finally able to talk to her. After they had arrived at the mountain bunker, he had found out that Joseph had enough knowledge about the Na'vi language to act as an interpreter and that he was even willing to help them communicate. The problem had been that commander Lockwood wasn't open to having casual conversations with their captive. Also, Ralf had been acting strangely every time he had talked about her while he was present.

The others had succeeded in keeping Charlie away from Elynin for a while, but it appeared they had finally grown tired of the pettiness of it, and had let it go. Charlie had wondered what Lockwood could be doing that was distracting him enough so that for once he wasn't thinking about 'what was good for all of humanity' or whatever that guy's drive was.

But none of that mattered to Charlie right now. He had already found out her name and her role within her clan. In turn he had told her who he was and what his occupation was. She hadn't wanted to say anything about why she had been in the jungle by herself, and Charlie had decided not to press the subject.

"Alright, so how about family? You have a clan, but do you also have any close relatives?" Charlie asked with a curious tone. Joseph translated it into a monotone sounding sentence, not at all how Charlie had intended it to sound.

" _I have two brothers, Tsa'kan and Namuk. Both are younger than me. What about you?_ " she replied, whilst looking at Charlie. She appeared to ignore everything about Joseph, except the words she heard. Charlie was sure she was trying to imagine him saying the words, in order to match them up with his facial expressions and intonation.

"That's wonderful to hear. But uh…" Charlie hesitated for a moment. "I don't really have anyone left…They're all dead. It's one of the reasons I came here."

Elynin reacted noticeably to this. She lowered her head slightly and then changed her sitting position. In the process, she moved a bit closer toward him. " _Sorry to hear that. May I ask what happened to them?_ "

"Hmm… how to put this? You could say that… rival clans attacked us. Yeah, that about sums it up." Charlie answered hesitantly. He decided he wanted to talk about different things, and so he attempted to change the subject. "Anyway, there is only one clan left nowadays. It's just us now, the Tempest. When I joined them, I did so together with a friend, Ralf. You've seen him. He's the short and stocky guy."

Elynin silently nodded in understanding. She knew that his friend was the person she had probably had the least interaction with. However, since this person had sided with the rock-thrower before, she would be more than glad to stay away from him.

Charlie now continued describing Ralf, seemingly not getting that Elynin already knew who he meant. Or maybe he was just venting his frustration with his 'friend'.

"Yes, he's the stocky fellow, who claims he's only stocky because of his curved spine. You will always recognize him from afar when you see this face and this posture." Charlie proceeded to make an exaggerated face with his upper lip pulled towards his nose. He also assumed a gorilla-like posture. To top it off, Joseph translated all of it, minus the posing, of course.

Elynin couldn't stop herself from letting out a giggle at this ridiculous sight. She was a bit surprised herself that it happened. For just a tiny moment, it had felt as if she was back in her village, gossiping with the other girls about the antics of certain boys. She could see that Charlie was pleased that he had made her laugh.

* * *

Inside the bunker complex, Walter Lockwood had barricaded himself into his improvised office. He was seated at his desk in the small grey room. Several pad-like computer devices had been laid out onto the surface in front of him. His frayed peaked cap with the silver skull and crossbones emblem was sitting at the far right end of the desk.

One of his hands was resting on top of his strained bald head, as he was staring blankly at an old paper photo that was lying in front of him. His eyes did not seem to focus on the image itself. He seemed to be staring right through it. The look in his eyes was one of emptiness.

The photo showed the faces of a teenage boy and a teenage girl. The boy had his arm around the shoulders of the girl. His other arm went outside the frame, indicating that the boy had made the picture as a selfie. Their faces were close together and both were beaming, as if that moment had been the best one in their lives. Perhaps it had been.

The boy was wearing a pink shirt, and had his long black hair styled with gel. His grey eyes did not yet have any unyieldingness about them. That had only come later, around the same time that he had started shaving his head, and when he had started wearing a black military uniform.

Lockwood was silently experiencing a flashback, which he had triggered deliberately by looking at the photo. In his mind, he relived a series of events and vague images.

First, there were flashes of the place and time the selfie had been taken. It had been at a large party. His girlfriend had been with him, and they had had the time of their lives. She had the habit of calling him "Walt". These images were followed by a steady stream of flashes that descended into horror and madness.

Several days after the selfie had been taken; Lockwood couldn't quite remember when exactly; he had taken his girlfriend Hanna to a new restaurant that had just opened that evening. Its entrance was located in a dark and narrow alleyway. Despite this, the interior was quite nice. It was clean, modern and even decorated with allegedly real wood, which was considered a rare commodity only the rich could afford. After a while, they had realized that they remained the only ones inside. When they got up to leave, suspicious looking men started appearing. Walt and Hanna were suddenly ambushed and violently knocked out.

Lockwood remembered the screaming he had heard when he awoke again. He did not know where he was, but he had woken up in quite a literal a nightmare. He had been chained by his arms to the ceiling inside a dark room. His head hurt tremendously and blood was trickling down his face. Soon, he realized where the screams were coming from. A dirty window was all that separated him from the next room where there were people kept in cages like animals.

Eventually, he saw Hanna in one of those cages. Desperately, he started to call out to her. She turned around to look at him. She looked bruised and badly beaten. It appeared she could not call out to him. The only thing she could do was mouth his name without any sound: "Walt."

Lockwood could not quite recall how long he had been in that room, or how long he had seen Hanna there. What he did remember was the first time someone slammed the end of a baseball bat into his stomach. After that, beatings ensued regularly. From what little he could overhear from his captors, he eventually managed to piece together that he and Hanna had ended up in the hands of a human trafficking organization. Hanna was part of the 'goods' that were to be sold. He was the 'bycatch', unneeded to make a profit, but suitable to be used by the employees for 'physical therapy'.

One time, he had awoken to find that most of the cages had disappeared. Hanna was now gone, apparently shipped off to some customer, or to some market to be traded there. There was no way he could deal with it. He had screamed for hours. He had even continued screaming when they had come with the baseball bat in an attempt to shut him up. He had even gone on when he had to cough up blood.

He had been the first one to see the silhouette of a man standing in the doorway. The man was over two meters tall, bare-chested and with muscles like a strongman. His bright blue eyes stood out in the dark silhouette. Lockwood couldn't remember if it was really true that a strange light seemed to be coming from behind the man, and that this light seemed to follow him when he entered the room.

The man quickly took on the three captors and effortlessly beat them with his bare fists. The final captor managed to shoot at the mysterious man. He was hit, but it didn't slow him down in the slightest. He lifted the final captor by the neck, and slammed his skull against the concrete ceiling. Lockwood's captivity had finally been over.

He remembered being carried away from that place by the tall man, who spoke soothing words to him. The man, Wilhelmus, told him that the darkness which had engulfed humanity was receding, but that he needed Lockwood's help to further contain the darkness. From that day on, Lockwood saw Wilhelmus as his new father, like many others already did.

His life had gained momentum. Lockwood joined this radical new movement, and became a member of the paramilitary section, known as the SD. He fought; he conquered enemies; he saved people; he rose through the ranks; he received military decorations. But never again had he seen or heard anything from Hanna. Not even the Tempest, with all its resources and surveillance networks, could find any traces of her. He had no idea if she was dead or alive. There was never even a body found. It was as if she had disappeared into a black hole, into the darkness.

So when he wore a uniform with the logo of the Tempest, this meant something different to him than it did to most other people. The black dot that represented Earth also represented the place where Hanna had gone to: the black hole, the darkness that was still left; the darkness that they were trying to contain and destroy.

The silver skull with crossbones was a symbol which signified the defiance of death. To Lockwood personally, it meant he had to go on with defying the darkness and the death of humanity until his own personal death. That was the only thing left in his life.

The silence in the room was abruptly disturbed by a strange noise. Lockwood was startled by it, remembering he was now on a mission on a moon far away from where his past had taken place. His hand that was holding the picture started shaking. Someone had said his name. But only one person would call him that. A whisper had called out the name Walt.

Lockwood stood up, knocking his chair to the ground. He instinctively turned to face a specific corner of the room. There was nothing there. There wasn't even a grate leading to an air duct or anything like that. How could this sound have gotten into this room?

"Hanna." he whispered, in a moment of futile and irrational hope that she would be there. Nothing happened. There was nothing in the room. He sighed and picked up the chair. He slapped his face a couple of times and told himself that this was no time to start imagining things.

Lockwood finally folded the picture and put it back into his jacket pocket. Suddenly, the silence was disrupted again. This time, however, it was a message via radio.

"…This is Hell's Gate calling squad alpha. Repeat, this is Hell's Gate calling squad alpha. We have a location fix on your transponders. A medivac is inbound. E.T.A two hours. Acknowledge." a voice announced.

Lockwood sat down again and answered. "This is A.U.L. Lockwood from squad alpha. I copy. We're standing by. Nice to hear you didn't forget about us."

He then stood up, placed the breathing mask on his face, his peaked cap onto his head and grabbed his rifle. "Time's up. Time to talk." he said curtly. Though she was out of earshot, his words were directed at their Na'vi captive.

He stormed out of his office, and into the corridors, while calling the members of his squad via his radio. "All of you, meet me at the main entrance. Now. No excuses." he barked.

Everyone had heard him announce this, even Charlie and Joseph. Charlie understood that his opportunity was about to come to an end, and chose to make this known to Elynin.

"I just heard Lockwood, he's coming outside. I think he means business. He sounds serious." he said, sounding disappointed, with a hint of worry. "In case he wants to interrogate you, don't let him get to you. He can be very intense, but that doesn't mean you have to yield to him. You don't have to listen to him. You stay strong."

Just when Joseph finished translating the last of it, the door swung open, and out came Lockwood. Ralf and Astrid weren't with him, but he didn't seem to notice, or care.

"Back away from her, Charlie." he said, while holding his rifle aimed at Elynin. "We're going to finish our conversation one way or another. She's going to tell us what options we have."

"Sir, she's harmless. There's no need for that gun." Charlie tried to intervene, perhaps a bit foolishly.

"I said, back away, Charlie." Lockwood pressed, though Charlie didn't move. The former turned to face Joseph instead. "Grab him."

Without any hesitation, Joseph grabbed Charlie by his jacket collar with both his hands and lifted him up in an instant. His legs ended up dangling a few centimeters above the ground. He was so surprised by this sudden event, that for a moment he didn't know what to do or say.

Just when Charlie wanted to protest some more, Astrid and Ralf came running out of the airlock. Ralf came to a halt and narrowed his eyes for a moment, to take in the unusual scene. Joseph had a lot more strength than he had thought.

"Ralf, get him out of here. Restrain him if needed." Lockwood ordered. "Astrid, Joseph, you are staying right here." Joseph proceeded to lower Charlie to the ground. The latter started struggling wildly.

"Charlie, are you crazy? Calm down, bro." Ralf tried, but the way he said this, almost condescendingly, only made it worse.

"Can't you see he's going to hurt her?! I'm not going to let him!" Charlie continued. Ralf saw no choice but to drag him away from the scene, despite his shouting and heavy struggling.

When Ralf and Charlie had finally disappeared inside, Lockwood sighed. "Remind me not to recommend that guy for a promotion." he said vaguely in the direction of Astrid. "Now, where were we?"

He turned to Elynin and got straight to the point. " _I have given you plenty of time to think it over. So let us hear it then. What do you think? Are there other options, apart from going to war?_ "

From the moment Charlie had been lifted from the ground, Elynin had been staring at the bright blue sky, trying to block out everything else. She wanted to be anywhere but here right now. She had been dreading this moment for days. She knew what she had to say, but she feared what would happen after she had said it.

" _I… I don't know anything about leadership, or diplomacy, or war. My clan cast me out, that is why you found me alone. But I know there is another option if you and I believe in it. I do not know how to get there, but I have seen something that will require our peoples to join forces to defend against something not seen before, something unknown, something powerful and threatening._ "

She immediately berated herself inside her head for wording it like this. To make such a statement based on a partially interpreted vision was very risky. She could be completely wrong. And she had zero proof.

Lockwood raised both his eyebrows. " _That is most interesting. But I have no clue what you are talking about. A larger threat? Na'vi and humans having to join forces? Is that our destiny? I think I could have come up with something better than that in the time that I gave you._ "

He promptly and quite unexpectedly lowered his weapon. " _You know what? Forget it. Did you really think that whether or not we would go to war with each other would be decided by this conversation? I suspect the allies and enemies have already been outlined by our leaders at this point. It doesn't matter what we do here. Nothing here is going to change that outcome._ "

He turned around and started to walk away from her. " _It is time for us to go to our new home. I know someone else who will be greatly interested in you. After all, there are not many opportunities to capture a Na'vi without bloodshed, and without a whole clan rising up in protest._ Doctor Nitschke _can have you. Good day._ "


	11. Homecoming

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 11: Homecoming**

A strange buzzing noise was disrupting the usual sounds of the rainforest. Two Na'vi faces slowly moved into view from behind a rocky slope. One looked concerned, the other looked amazed.

" _Do you see anything?_ " Namuk whispered carefully to his brother. " _It sounds like a really huge and fat bug. What could it be?_ "

Tsa'kan didn't reply; he was thinking to himself. They had followed the Sky People's trail all the way here, but not once had they come close to catching up with them. Right now, he wasn't sure if they finally had. This thing was hovering over there. Namuk hadn't seen it yet. He felt no need to point it out to him.

What was it, and what was it doing? It was black with several blinking lights on its underside. It had been made by them; that was the one thing he was sure of. It reeked of them.

Tsa'kan decided to test its senses. He took a small pebble from ground, held it in his hand for a moment, and suddenly threw it into the direction of the black buzzing thing. He had no intention of hitting it; he just wanted to see if it would be alerted, and if so, how it would respond.

The pebble disappeared between some plants. There was no reaction whatsoever; at least not from that thing.

" _Ooohh… what an ugly bug._ " Namuk let slip. He didn't raise his voice when he said it, though. It seemed he was catching up, albeit more slowly than Tsa'kan would have liked. One would think that after they had experienced the inexplicable blinding white light in the sky several days ago, that Namuk would have finally grasped the seriousness of the whole situation with the Sky People.

" _Hand me my bow. Quietly._ " Tsa'kan instructed his brother, without moving his eyes from the hovering bug. Several seconds later, he felt the familiar grip, which was being gently pushed into his hand.

He rose from behind the rocky slope with his bow drawn. Soundlessly, he released his arrow, which swiftly hit the black bug. The thing promptly swerved away and bumped into a tree branch. Some grinding sounds could then be heard, before it finally fell down onto the ground. The buzzing stopped.

" _You got it!_ " Namuk blurted out, this time with some volume in his voice. Tsa'kan looked him straight in the eyes. He didn't have to say anything. Namuk got the message as he immediately hung his head.

Tsa'kan waited until he was sure no-one was going to react to this creature being shot down. Then he moved in closer. He quickly glanced over to the downed bug, before proceeding further up the mountain slope.

At last, he could see what they were searching for. There was an old camp here. They had done something with the rock wall over there. They had put some of their materials into it, as if the rock wasn't strong enough on its own.

He gestured to Namuk to stay where he was. Next, he began creeping along the wall, towards something that looked like a makeshift hammock. It was empty, of course, but it interested him nonetheless. When he was close enough, he sniffed it cautiously, and then backed away. Could it really be? He leaned in again, just to be sure.

Elynin had definitely been here. She must have been using this hammock to sleep in. She was nowhere in sight now, though. Tsa'kan decided to check out the armored rock wall. A part of it looked like it could be opened, although he had no idea how that worked. If the humans were hiding anywhere close by, it would be behind this thing.

In a bold move, he banged it a couple of times with his bow, before quickly retreating back around a corner of the wall. With his bow drawn, he waited for a reaction. Again, there was none.

He moved back in front of the armored façade. This time he walked out into the open. " _Where are you hiding? Come out and face me, you cowards._ " he called out to them. He banged a couple more times on the armored wall, for good measure. Some small animals in the trees sounded bothered by the noise he was making. Nothing else happened.

" _They are not here._ " he mumbled to himself in realization, just as Namuk came scrambling up the slope.

" _We should follow their tracks again._ " Namuk suggested innocently. Tsa'kan shushed him with a raised hand. Namuk was right though. There were definitely tracks here. But something was amiss. Tsa'kan studied the ground, kneeling in several places, before finally pointing out something to his brother.

" _Look at that, what do you make of that?_ " he asked. Namuk was surprised to get the chance to vent his view on the matter. He was instantly intrigued.

" _It looks like those tracks we have been following. All we have to do is follow those, right?_ " Namuk said, trying to sound as if he was getting the hang of reading tracks like a true hunter.

" _It would seem that way. Except there is one problem. The ground has only been disturbed in one direction. If they had doubled back, it would be noticeable._ " Tsa'kan elaborated calmly.

" _And that means…_ " Namuk said tentatively, sounding more clueless than he would have liked.

" _It means that whatever made these tracks, decided to fly away from this place._ " Tsa'kan said finally.

Namuk definitely looked confused now. " _But hold on… if it could fly all this time, why did it not fly away sooner?_ " he asked. Tsa'kan had no answer for him. It seemed the Sky People had outwitted them. Elynin was likely still their captive, and now there would be no trail leading to her anymore.

Tsa'kan drew his bow and shot an arrow aimlessly into the sky. " _Please, Eywa, watch over her._ " he prayed. He had to accept that he could not follow her anymore. He didn't like it one bit, but he had to admit to himself that she was in their hands now.

* * *

"Woohoo! We're going home, baby." Ralf called out as he looked down over the moving landscape. He was feeling pretty good, being airborne again.

The ducted-fan gunship he and the rest of the squad were currently riding was the same kind that the RDA used to operate on Pandora: the Samson. The only difference was the color of its hull: pitch black, with the occasional Tempest logo.

Ralf and Astrid were seated opposite each other in the rear section of the vehicle. They were looking out of the left side door opening. Charlie was sitting at the right side, as far away from them as he could get.

He couldn't believe it. Lockwood and the pilot had insisted that Elynin be sedated for the journey. And the others, including Ralf, had agreed with them. No doubt did Astrid and Ralf think that by agreeing with everything Lockwood said, they could make up for previous behavior.

Since Charlie had taken Elynin's side without question, it had really solidified the general opinion that he was no longer in line with the ideals of the Tempest. He was either the bad guy somehow, or just plain crazy.

And Joseph of all people had suggested that he was delirious due to his wounds and the medication, and that therefore he was unaccountable for his actions. Just what was that guy's angle? Charlie felt no pain in his leg, nor did he feel woozy. He simply couldn't use his leg properly; it didn't respond the way he wanted to. Joseph probably had no idea of his medical state.

Elynin was now sitting opposite him, strapped into two adjoining seats, her head resting in a corner near the ceiling. Her eyes were closed, and her arms were hanging limp.

Charlie looked sideways momentarily. Astrid seemed to be pointing out something in the distance, and Ralf was looking for it. They seemed to have seen something funny, as both suddenly laughed. Charlie didn't care. He looked over his shoulder. Lockwood was still in the cockpit, with Joseph standing in the doorway. Both were facing away from him.

He took off one of his gloves, and reached out. Gently, he touched Elynin's large and slender right hand. It was warm and smooth.

"Hold on, okay? It'll be fine. They'll let you go soon, I promise. And in the meantime, I'll do anything to keep an eye on you, and make sure you're alright." he said to her, knowing that she couldn't hear him. Perhaps it was best that she couldn't, otherwise she might hold him to these promises, which would be difficult to keep in any case. It was really the only thing he could do at this point.

He had not expected that he would dread the moment they would return to real human civilization. It came sooner than he had hoped. The forest disappeared from view. In its place came grey and brown patches of recently cleared forest ground, with the stumps of tree trunks still visible. Next, there was a fence, a defense tower, and then nothing but concrete ground.

The Samson came to a brief stop, hovering above the concrete. Within seconds, a slight lurch could be felt and a soft thud could be heard. It appeared that the rover the gunship had been carrying had successfully detached. No doubt would its successful recovery yield Lockwood extra stars for his new medal.

Finally, the Samson itself touched down. Even before the rotors were shut down, people in white coveralls swarmed over to them. They unstrapped Charlie from his seat, and lifted him unto a gurney.

"There's no need, I feel just fine." he attempted, but nobody listened to him. He saw that they had a second gurney ready for Elynin. It took five or six of them to move her onto it.

They started rolling his gurney away from the Samson and towards one of the buildings. This threatened to obstruct Elynin from his view, which he found unacceptable.

"Wait just a moment. I want to know where they're taking her." he told the person nearest to him, whose sleeve he had just pulled. He felt a sharp sting in his arm all of a sudden. Another person was now injecting something into said arm.

It made him relax very quickly, although he had every intention of resisting. But he had no choice. He was too weak to keep his head up any longer. When he finally put down his head onto the pillow, Elynin disappeared out of view.

As the noise of the rotors and engine died down, he noticed a different annoying sound in the background. While his gurney moved, the sound seemed to be drawing nearer.

"What the blazes is that noise? A dying sea elephant?" Ralf wondered out loud. Ironically, he said exactly what Charlie was thinking. It was somewhat on the late side for him to start backing him up now, though.

"Well look at that. Ulysses 'Trombone' Thorpe. They really turned over the loony bin now, didn't they? They'll let anybody onto this planet these days." Ralf commented, sounding annoyed and amused at the same time.

Charlie could soon see a man with a trombone standing on the roof of a cargo container. He didn't know much about music, but he was sure that a trombone wasn't supposed to sound like that. Its sound was more like that of a heavier instrument, a tuba maybe? Now that he thought about it, how exactly does someone play an instrument like that in an unbreathable atmosphere?

He thought that maybe he was imagining things, as he was getting drowsy. The man with the trombone disappeared out of sight, and eventually, the noise died down. The gurney reached an airlock, and after it was vented of all Pandoran air, someone removed his breathing mask for him.

About the last thing he remembered seeing before passing out, was a man with sunglasses and an unusually high jacket collar. The man was standing over him, looking most interested in what he was seeing.

* * *

Charlie expected to awaken in the mountain bunker, because he seemed to have had a bad dream. Unfortunately, when he opened his eyes, he was forced to accept that the dream was reality. He awoke to find himself lying in a bed in a small room. The room was brightly lit; it had a large window, which allowed him to look out over the concrete landing pads of Hell's Gate.

Outside his window, there was a row of flagpoles. Each pole carried a flag of one of the nations that had been united under the Tempest. Most flags were the original flags of the nations, but with a minor addition: a small Tempest logo either in the middle or in the corner somewhere. Other nations had gone and adopted more extreme variants. These ranged from using a quarter of the flag for the Tempest logo, to having a whole flag covered with their own comparable logo in the same style and colors as the Tempest logo.

He decided he had seen enough, and wanted to get up. When he moved his injured right leg, however, he felt a sharp pain.

"Aargh…son of a...fuck." he said while he gritted his teeth. Instead of getting up, he looked around for a call button near his bed, which he immediately pressed when he found it.

Probably within 30 seconds, a nurse opened the door. She was carrying an electronic notepad. "And how are we feeling today, Mister Simmons?" she asked cheerily.

"Horrible…" Charlie answered groggily. "When can I get out of this place? I'm looking for someone."

"You may already leave today. But you are going to have to come back here regularly. You have to learn to use a wheelchair." the nurse elaborated.

Charlie frowned. "Huh… You must have me confused with someone else, lady. I'm not paralyzed. In fact, I can feel my legs just fine, maybe a bit too fine."

"Okay, Mister Simmons, if you're fine, why don't you get up out of bed then?" she asked while folding her arms.

Charlie still didn't get it. "I don't understand. I didn't feel any pain before. And now I do. What did you do to my leg?"

The nurse sat down onto the end of his bed. "According to the report of your superior officer, you were attacked by a mountain banshee. Correct?"

Charlie remained silent and only nodded in reply.

"Then you should consider yourself very lucky we didn't have to amputate your leg. We did a scan, and could see that several tendons have been severed. That doesn't mean it can't be fixed, it will just require additional surgery and a long rehabilitation process." the nurse said, returning to her initial cheery tone of voice.

"Wonderful." Charlie said dryly. He thought that maybe he should indeed feel lucky that they didn't take his leg. But in general, this situation wasn't what he had been hoping for.

"Should I call Ralf Philips?" the nurse inquired suddenly. "I see he's listed as your emergency contact. If you want to leave today, maybe he can pick you up and assist you with moving around?"

Charlie turned his head away from her and grunted in disgust before replying. "No…I'm sure you can help me into the chair, then."

* * *

The base was like a big construction site. Everywhere, people seemed to be working on everything, from restoring existing structures and equipment to their former glory to unloading construction materials and integrating new prefab buildings.

A few minutes from now, there would be a special event, hosted by the Leader himself, which would serve as the evening's breather and refresher.

Charlie was sitting in his wheelchair, his body wrapped in a white blanket, staring at the podium in front of him. The nurse had moved him and the chair to this spot, which was only a few meters from the podium. He didn't have the will power to move anywhere else. The only thing he could think of was Elynin and the fact that there was no-one looking out for her.

More and more people poured into the large chamber. Eventually, he saw some faces he recognized. There were some members of squad alpha who hadn't fallen from the rock, such as Yijun Liao. Then he saw Lockwood, in full SD parade uniform with all his medals no less. In quite a contrast, Joseph was beside him, wearing a simple grey uniform without any rank insignia or other decorations. Oddly enough, Ralf appeared to be absent, but perhaps it was better that way.

Charlie did not know that Ralf and Astrid were away on a mission. This was a result of their behavior during the previous one. They were in the back of a Samson, flying somewhere over the forest. The sun had already set by now, and the bioluminescence of the flora was starting to become visible. They had several crates with them in the Samson, which were full of unusual black orbs.

"It could have been worse." Ralf yelled over the sound of the rotors. "They could have kicked us out, sent us back to Earth, or made us scrub johns."

Astrid responded by simply hurling one of the black orbs into Ralf's chest.

Back at Hell's Gate, the chamber was full of hundreds of people and the doors were closed. There was no need to ask everyone to be silent, because this happened naturally. The lights were dimmed somewhat, as an announcer began speaking. "My comrades… the Leader!"

Wilhelmus, wearing his beige uniform and a black cape that was covered in small Tempest logos, stepped out of a side door and silently took long strides towards the podium. He received some spontaneous Tempest salutes from several people in the audience. Multiple high ranking SD officers stood at attention. On the podium, the Leader knelt elegantly onto one knee, and slowly moved his arms up in front of him into a wide open gesture. It looked like he was offering a great invisible gift to the audience.

"You did it! The colony is ours once again!" He roared victoriously. The crowd began applauding and cheering. Wilhelmus rose to stand up straight, and also began clapping. His focus seemed to move to several individual people, as he appeared to personally applaud them. He then turned to look at the soldiers of squad alpha, and made a light bow with his head as he applauded them. He didn't look directly at Charlie, though.

When the silence returned, Wilhelmus began his speech. "Yes… Yes… you did extremely well. We control the colony, but as you are all aware, this is only the beginning. Now we must not lose focus. There is still a lot more work to be done. But we will get there. I have faith in you."

He paused momentarily to let the message sink in. He resumed with another subject. "The Na'vi say we are unnatural. They say we are insane abominations, who killed their own world, who killed their own mother. Well, they weren't there. They weren't there when humanity was in its infancy. They didn't see that our mother was a fickle bitch, who left us to fend for ourselves, in an unforgiving world. For thousands of years, we have sought to improve our way of life, so that our children could sleep easy at night, knowing that there was a future. We have explored every aspect of religion, of science, of warfare, and of ourselves in the hope that we could improve on that."

"But what **is** better? When does something **become** better? To me, it means improving what we do best already. We developed our culture, because that is what we do. We built new machines, because that it what we do. We built improved weapons, because that is what we do. We conquered this place, because that is what we do. We expanded our living space, because that is what we do. This! Is! Our! Nature!"

After he said these last four words, he marched in place, stomping on the ground as he did so, the number of stomps equal to the amount of syllables of those words. Next, he roared "Let's see what you can do!"

Some people imitated him, saying the four words and marching in place afterwards. It seemed to be contagious. Soon, nearly everyone in the chamber was taking part. It was almost ritualistic. Charlie could feel the floor and his wheelchair starting to shake. He simply stared blankly at Wilhelmus, who now appeared to be conducting the crowd to move and chant in unison through exaggerated hand motions.

Outside the base, the entire event was being broadcast over the speaker system, and not just for the personnel that remained on duty. The noise pollution could be heard deep into the forest. Ralf and Astrid were helping to spread it. They had been dropping the black orbs out of the Samson a few at a time. From each orb, the sounds of Wilhelmus' voice, the chanting of the people and the stomping on the ground could be heard quite clearly, and with a significant bass. The orders were to set the orbs to repeat the message indefinitely, so that they would be producing sounds until their individual batteries would run out.

"Man, he's really going at it this time. I almost feel sorry for the natives…" Ralf admitted. "I'm glad I don't have to hunt down each of these little guys, just to get a good night's rest."

"You're not getting a good night's rest yourself, though. I'm not done with you yet." Astrid replied suggestively.

* * *

When the event at Hell's Gate was finally over, Charlie felt even more drained than before. He simply remained stationary in his wheelchair as the chamber slowly emptied. Quite unexpectedly, someone started pushing him. He looked up, and could see the man with the sunglasses and the high jacket collar.

"Charlie, Charlie, Charlie…" the man said in a low and raspy electric sounding voice. Even though he had never met him, judging by the distinctive voice, Charlie thought he knew who this man was.

"You are broken in both body and spirit. Every one of us is feeling quite good, but not you. How did that happen?" the man went on, as he slowly pushed Charlie out of the chamber.

Charlie had to snicker. "Apologies, sir, but you should read Lockwood's report. I'm sure it contains all the details." he said indifferently.

"I did. It was quite… disappointing actually. Not at all what I was looking for." the man said.

"So what have you been looking for?" Charlie asked, feigning interest.

"I have been looking for you. What if I told you that I can give you a purpose again?" the man revealed.

Charlie snickered again. "What makes you think I don't have any purpose in my life? You don't know me."

The man continued. "Please… You seek the Na'vi girl… Yes…I know all about her. It was inevitable that something like this would happen. After all, it has happened before."

"What are you going on about?" Charlie countered, becoming more agitated. "What's wrong with getting to know your enemy?"

"Charlie…you might be fooling the others. You might even be fooling yourself. But you don't fool me." the man calmly stated. "You have grown attached to her. One could even say that the corner stone for love has been laid down already."

Charlie grabbed the wheels of his chair, so that it came to a halt. "You got it all wrong." he snapped.

The man remained silent for a moment, before gently pushing the wheelchair forward again. "There is no need to pretend, Charlie. You don't have to suppress your feelings. If you accept my offer, you will be working for me. People may judge you, but they will not touch you. I will make sure of that."

"Of course, in order for this endeavor to succeed, the feeling has to be mutual. We will need to work on that, probably. But fear not, breakthroughs have already been made." the man continued cryptically.

"Breakthroughs, you say. For what, exactly?" Charlie asked, sounding intrigued for the first time since the start of the conversation.

"Ah… it concerns an old program they used to run in this place. We are looking into rebooting it, with some slight adjustments." As he said this, they came to a stop in front of a railing. From this balcony, they could look through a window, down into a large open area. It appeared they were setting up some kind of laboratory in this place. Large cylindrical, transparent tanks were being filled up with a watery substance.

"So what do you say? Do you want to be with her? Watch over her? Protect her?"

"Absolutely. Doctor Nitschke, you were right, there is nothing I want more."

"Good… Welcome then, to version 2.0 of the Avatar Program."


	12. Alone

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Alone**

A brief flow of air could be heard again, followed by the familiar buzzing and clicking sounds. No doubt had the Sky People in white suits arrived again. So it must be morning then.

Elynin opened one eye. The light in her cell was still extinguished, but that wasn't the case for the corridor down below. She didn't have to look to know what was going on there. After the buzzing and clicking, the transparent door would be open, and they would come out in their white suits, which covered their whole bodies, except for an area around their eyes. They would then either turn left or right, and disappear into the perpendicular corridor.

She was lying on what she would describe as a rigid hammock. Though there was a kind of cushioning layer on top of it, it did not assume the shape of her body. This could have been worse though, since the jungle floor, which she was well accustomed to since her exile from her clan, was not much better.

Not much else was present in the cell. There was a small basin with a small fountain that started spraying water whenever she passed her hand underneath it. After a short while, it would stop again. As far as she knew, it could be triggered indefinitely. Thus she always had water to drink. In one of the walls, there was a small hatch through which she occasionally received some food. On the floor, there was a shiny pot with a lid, which was supposed to be used for waste. She didn't want to go near it when she didn't have to.

The walls were mostly white, same as the floor and the ceiling. Two walls were somewhat different. The first was largely transparent, and allowed her to look out over the Sky People in the perpendicular corridor below. The second was covered with a very detailed painting, appearing almost real, but not quite. It showed trees and rocks, blue skies and flowers. Though it was all lifeless, it was the best thing she had to remind her that the real world was still out there.

Eventually, the lights in her cell reignited. It seemed to have taken ages this time. Or maybe it had only been a short while. Once again, time did not seem to be flowing quite right for her.

She sat up and stretched herself momentarily. Next, she knelt beside the rigid hammock, closed her eyes, and spoke some words.

" _All-Mother, if you can hear me, please let my brothers find peace and strength during my absence. And please let our clan see that they mean well and are not to blame for anything. Father, mother, if you can hear me, I am so sorry I left them behind. I will try my best to get back to them._ "

She paused for a moment, as she shifted her position slightly. The floor wasn't very comfortable. Nevertheless, these daily prayers felt like they were her closest connection to the outside. She knew she had to keep calm and not worry too much about her situation, or she might just lose her sanity to this alien place.

" _All-Mother, I know I am asking a lot. And I know I do not deserve it, but please show me any clue you can. I cannot leave this place by any method I know of. I believe you know the human they call_ Charlie _. If you can reach out to him instead of me, and guide him, then he can help me. I know he will._ "

After a moment of silence, Elynin stood up, took several steps toward the transparent wall and sat down again with her face near it. She did it to confirm that the Sky People in white suits were still doing the same thing they had been doing for the past few days now.

She had absolutely no clue what the goal of their actions was down there. She could only see them walking along and occasionally carrying flat objects on which they seemed to be drawing things. Every once in a while one of their machines rolled past, moving stacks of rectangular objects. The corridors must be leading to important places where all these humans and machines were diligently doing something. However, she thought that even if she could see beyond this corridor, she likely still wouldn't be able to make sense of their behavior.

At least their behavior was more or less predictable, from what she could see. That was the only soothing thing about the situation.

Two of them had just exited through the buzzing and clicking transparent door. One of them looked up, and appeared to see Elynin, as he stopped to tap the other one on the shoulder. The other one now looked up from the square flat pad he was holding. The first one proceeded to put his gloved hand up in some kind of gesture.

By now, she knew that the humans all had four fingers and a thumb on each hand. He held up his hand with the four fingers parted into two pairs. She didn't know what it meant, but it resulted in the other human moving his hand over his face, seemingly in annoyance. Afterwards, they appeared to be arguing as they walked along.

* * *

Charlie was standing upright with the help of two crutches. Ralf was standing to his left, Astrid to his right. Lockwood was at the end, beside Astrid. The other members of squad alpha, minus Joseph, were here also. The soldiers were lined up, standing at attention. Lockwood was standing separately, facing them. All were wearing their grey SD parade uniforms: jacket, trousers and black boots. The uniforms also included a necktie, peaked cap, silver on black rank insignia, medal ribbons, and a black armband with the Tempest logo.

Concerning the number of ribbons, most of them had at least two complete rows of three. Charlie and Ralf were below the average, with only four ribbons in total for each of them. Of course, Lockwood, as the highest ranking member of squad alpha, also had the most ribbons: a total of four rows. However, his rows were four wide instead of three. No other SD officer of his rank came close to this amount of ribbons. Even some senior group leaders, who had the highest rank in the SD below supreme group leader, did not have as many.

Charlie found himself caring less about this now than he had ever done. Sure, it felt good being recognized as having done something important. And everyone would be able to see his accomplishments when he wore these ribbons, but they weren't on Earth anymore. He might have impressed regular civilians back there, but it was all pretty meaningless out here. Here it was just the Tempest and the Na'vi. The latter probably didn't even know about this concept, or likely wouldn't care in the slightest, even if they did understand it.

The Leader and a high ranking officer were awarding each soldier one at a time. They had started at the far end, and were working their way towards the end where Lockwood was standing. Charlie recognized the officer beside the Leader: it was Oswald Torr, the second son of Wilhelmus.

Though Oswald definitely looked related to Wilhelmus, due to the blue eyes and white hair, he wasn't quite as tall, or as muscled. It looked a bit as if someone had taken a clone of Wilhelmus, shaven off his curly white sideburns and walrus mustache, and hammered him into the ground. Except that instead of his body disappearing into the ground as it was being hammered, it had simply deformed to become wider and rounder. There was no better word to describe it: Oswald was fat. He did not appear to have a neck and had at least two chins. His beige uniform was baggy, making him look like a mobile party tent.

Oswald was known to be obsessed with medals. Every grunt in the SD knew this. He had even more of them than Lockwood. And he still had a lot of room available for the future. Unlike Lockwood, who had earned them all the hard way, he had probably awarded a few of them to himself, likely for things such as having devoured a ten course meal in a single sitting.

Dozens of these kinds of jokes existed, mocking this, along with his appearance. And Oswald could laugh at every one of them, which was something Charlie had never understood. Right now, Wilhelmus was probably humoring him by letting him carry the medals and pin them to the chests of the soldiers.

When Wilhelmus and Oswald reached Ralf, they paused, as Wilhelmus drew special attention to the extended stay in the Pandoran jungle the four of them had experienced.

"Just like the first pioneers who set foot on Pandora all these years ago, these last four brave soldiers experienced what it was like to survive here without any backup. It was a demanding ordeal, which pushed them all to the edge. Therefore, in addition to receiving the campaign medal for their part in Operation Hawkeye, they shall receive the Death's Head First Class, as well as two promotions in rank. Also, for his determination in ensuring the survival of his troops, and for his effort in thinking up and achieving additional objectives that would serve humanity, Walter Lockwood shall receive the Grand Death's Head." Wilhelmus announced proudly.

Charlie had some trouble processing what he was hearing. After everything that had happened, after everything Lockwood had said about them disgracing the SD and the Tempest, this was probably the last thing he had expected. The big bosses were turning these events, which Lockwood had clearly mentioned in his report, into some kind of heroic ordeal. They were being put on a shining pedestal for that mess.

Charlie had to do his absolute best not to snicker, or even change his facial expression. Lockwood's face looked neutral, but his eyes revealed that he was outraged, despite the decorations he would be receiving. If his piercing gaze could actually stab the three of them, it would probably have been a blood bath right here and now. Wilhelmus didn't notice any of this, and simply proceeded with the ceremony.

"Ralf Philips, you shall receive the campaign medal and the Death's Head First Class. You shall be promoted to senior squad leader in the SD." he read out loud from an electronic notebook.

This was probably the first time Charlie had seen Wilhelmus use something like that. All his speeches were normally done without any aid. At least, they had always made it appear that way.

"For victory, my Leader!" Ralf replied while making the Tempest salute, just after Oswald finished pinning the medals to his chest. For once, he did something that was exactly according to the protocol.

Charlie was next. Wilhelmus said more or less the same to him. He was getting the same medals and the same promotion as Ralf after all. The campaign medal had a red and blue ribbon. The medal itself was fairly normal looking: round and golden. The Death's Head First Class was something else, though. The medal was a silver skull with crossbones, and its ribbon was black and grey. In the middle of the ribbon there was a small Tempest logo flanked by some more bones.

"For victory, my Leader!" Charlie replied, in his best loyalist's voice, while also making the Tempest salute. He feared that it might have sounded too forced, as the Leader's eyes lingered on him for a bit longer. His stare almost seemed to be a warning. In the end, Wilhelmus simply turned away to face Astrid without any further comment.

Astrid received a comparable commendation speech. She was promoted from squad leader to chief squad leader. Wilhelmus added something extra this time, however.

"So, are you ready to receive your commission? I'm sure you've had enough of fighting on the front lines?" Wilhelmus inquired calmly.

Astrid simply shook her head, which Charlie could just see out of the corner of his eye. This was extremely unusual. No one in their right mind dared to reply to the Leader in that way. Even more unusual was Wilhelmus' reaction.

"Are you sure this is what you want, Astrid? I know you deny it, but you have great potential. So don't waste it." Wilhelmus continued. He was beginning to sound like a disappointed teacher.

"Sorry to point this out, grandpa, but who fought on the streets and engaged thugs with his bare fists, even when he was past forty?" Astrid answered boldly. Wilhelmus had to chuckle. The rest of the soldiers in the room couldn't help but turn their head to look at Astrid in disbelief.

"Fair enough." Wilhelmus said, not at all sounding like someone had just insulted him by calling him grandpa. And then it dawned on Charlie that Astrid was actually Wilhelmus' granddaughter. Her height, her pale blond hair, her light blue eyes; it made perfect sense. Why had he not suspected this earlier? Maybe it was due to her last name not being Torr?

"Grandpa, uncle… For victory!" she suddenly announced, while giving them the official saluting gesture. It seemed she didn't want the ceremony to stall on her behalf. Wilhelmus proceeded like nothing unusual had happened. He promptly went over to Lockwood.

Lockwood received a far more personalized speech from the Leader, which did not require the aid of a notebook. At the end, Wilhelmus even grabbed both of Lockwood's arms tightly and whispered something into his ear. It was abundantly clear that they were good friends, even though Lockwood remained as formal as he could.

Charlie was too distracted by the previous revelation to listen to everything they were saying to each other, however. After the closing words, which could mostly be summarized as "keep up the good work and serve humanity unconditionally", Wilhelmus, Oswald, and their retinue left the room.

As the soldiers of squad alpha also started leaving, Charlie noticed that Ralf's face had turned a peculiar shade of red. Even though he had decided not to talk to Ralf anymore, he figured he could make a small exception, considering the turn of events.

"What's the matter with you? Did you reach the menopause? Are you having hot flashes?" Charlie asked mockingly.

"I'm definitely having flashes of something." Ralf said, seemingly so affected by this mysterious something that he didn't even pick up on Charlie's blatant attempt at ridiculing him.

As they were walking towards the exit, Astrid suddenly grabbed Ralf from behind. She wrapped her arms around his chest, and rested her chin onto the back of his peaked cap. It was quite clear now that she was at least a head taller than him.

"He's thinking about me." Astrid said casually. "Maybe I should've warned him up front. I guess he's a bit scared now that the Leader finds out one of his grunts has been screwing his granddaughter."

Charlie momentarily raised his eyebrows. He did not know how to respond to this second revelation, because he had not yet fully recovered from the first one. Instinctively, he looked around, to see if anyone else had heard her say that. It turned out that they were the only ones left in the room. He could briefly see the back of Lockwood as the latter disappeared into the hallway.

"Actually… I was having a moment of inspiration." Ralf said, finally seeming to be pulling himself together. Nevertheless, he was staring vaguely at some undefined point in the distance as he said this.

Charlie now understood what kind of things were probably flashing through Ralf's mind. He silently stared at Astrid. When she noticed this, she silently mouthed some words to him, and grinned afterwards, while tightening her grip on Ralf. The latter was too preoccupied to notice this exchange. To Charlie, it looked like Astrid was saying "He's mine."

Charlie had difficulty believing that this was really happening. Betrayal was the first thing that came to mind when he thought about what he was experiencing, although he wasn't quite sure who had betrayed whom here, or where it had all gone wrong.

"Run along now, little Charlie." Astrid said as if addressing a small child. "Oh wait…my mistake." she quickly added, while snickering. " **Roll** along now, little Charlie. Go cry on the shoulder of your blue bitch."

Charlie stumbled his way towards his wheelchair, which was standing near the exit. After he sat down, he attempted to stow his crutches on the back of the chair, but was only partially successful. One crutch fell off. He could feel Astrid watching his every move with that stupid unending grin of hers.

"Stay away from me." he said firmly to Ralf, who did not seem to notice. "And you…" he said while pointing his finger at Astrid, "I hope you choke on something."

He started pushing the wheels and left the room as quickly as he could, leaving the fallen crutch behind.

* * *

Elsewhere on the base, near the location of the Avatar 2.0 laboratory, a room had been set up as a small office for a single person. Doctor Nitschke was sitting at his desk, reviewing a document on his personal workstation. Even now, while he was in a room that only had windows to the corridor and not to the outside, he still wore his sunglasses.

The room was almost completely silent, but since the door was open, noise from the lab and from the nearby corridor could be heard. Someone now approached the open door. Before this person had the chance to knock, doctor Nitschke looked up. It appeared he had heard the muffled noises of moving hydraulics.

"Why, Joseph. You're late. How did that happen? No mechanical issues, I hope?" doctor Nitschke inquired, sounding intrigued.

"Newly promoted Regiment Leader Lockwood had a need to express his opinion to me regarding the promotion ceremony, sir." Joseph replied steadily and without any emotion.

"I see. No problem." Nitschke said. "So, what are **your** thoughts on all of this, then?"

"Please rephrase your question, sir, because it does not make sense to me." Joseph answered calmly. He did not break eye contact with doctor Nitschke. This made it particularly obvious that he never blinked his eyes.

"Come on, Joseph, you understand me just fine. I am indeed asking you what you think about having been excluded from the ceremony." Nitschke said while casually leaning back in his chair.

"Humans receive ranks and awards. Tools do not. I am a tool. That is the way of the Tempest." Joseph said, seemingly perfectly content with this hierarchy.

"Indeed it is." Nitschke replied in slight disappointment. It wasn't quite the answer he had been hoping for. "Close the door for a moment, will you, Joseph?"

The latter silently did what he was asked. Nitschke then proceeded to another subject.

"Alright. I included some information about the rogue planet in your latest update. Do you know why?" he asked, sounding quite serious all of a sudden.

"I assume we are going to investigate Cosmos-34877 on a short term, presumably with a robotic mission." Joseph replied.

"Yes, well, we've already sent a lander. Unfortunately, contact was lost seconds after it touched down. I am now thinking of sending a manned mission to the surface." Nitschke said while looking away and running his hand through his greying black hair.

"With all due respect, it will be a high risk mission, sir. I do not understand why we would risk the resources for this. It is just another planet, comparable to many others in the Alpha Centauri star system." Joseph said, still looking straight at Nitschke even though the latter had broken eye contact.

"It is not **just** a planet, Joseph. This is something that might be difficult for you to comprehend, but there is something about it, which even I cannot explain. It is a feeling. I cannot help but feel that it is here for a reason. It wants to be found, to be investigated." Nitschke replied mysteriously.

Joseph did not ask how Nitschke could feel something like that. Instead, he acted as if Nitschke had not said this. "Who will be sent on this mission?"

"I already have one volunteer, but he told me that he would only go if you went with him." Nitschke admitted.

"Regiment Leader Lockwood." Joseph immediately said, making it clear that he knew there was only one person who would make such a demand. "Of course I will join him, sir."

"Good… and one more thing." Nitschke replied. "I managed to get approval to reactivate some of your friends. They are of the 600 or 700 type, I think. I suggest you take them along for the mission."

"Series 6, Model 3C, Type 600 and Series 6, Model 8A, Type 700" Joseph said, almost seeming to want to correct Nitschke on the proper naming of the designs. "Thank you, sir. I am sure they will be most useful."

As Joseph was saying this, he noticed doctor Nitschke looking away from him, apparently at one of the windows that provided a view of the corridor. Joseph turned his head slightly sideways, and could see a glimpse of a person in a wheelchair moving towards the lab.

"Forgive me for asking, sir, but what is your plan for him?" Joseph inquired, turning his head back to face Nitschke.

"He's going to join the new Avatar program, and he's not going to do any science." Nitschke said with a slight smile, before suddenly resuming a serious tone. "I cannot help but read some doubt in those eyes of yours. Am I right?"

"You are right, sir. I might not understand it yet, but I am convinced you have a greater overall plan." Joseph said as emotionlessly as ever.

"If you say so, Joseph. Now why don't you go and inspect your friends? I still have a lot of work to do." Nitschke said, as he returned to reviewing the document that was in front of him.

Joseph silently saluted him, before leaving the office. After about a minute, Nitschke stood up from his desk, and started making his way towards the lab.

* * *

Elynin was lying on her back on her cushioned berth inside her cell, staring at the painted wall, when some noises could be heard. It sounded like the food hatch was being opened. Intrigued, she sat up to look at the hatch in the opposite wall. She had already gotten some food this morning. Normally she wouldn't get any more until the evening. It was hard to tell if that much time had already passed, but she guessed it hadn't. Her conclusion was that there had to be something special going on.

She turned out to be right. The opaque white outer hatch was opened, allowing her to look through the transparent inner hatch that was still closed. She immediately dashed forward, and pressed her hands and face against the barrier.

"Whoa… easy there." Charlie reacted in surprise to her sudden movements. He could see her now desperately attempting to open the inner hatch, but it wouldn't budge.

"It can only be opened from one side at a time, not both. Oh, wait." Charlie tried to explain, but he quickly remembered that she couldn't understand a word of what he was saying.

He had made some preparations, however. He took out a piece of paper. "Alright, here goes."

" _Fear… not…_ " he started in the Na'vi language, albeit with a significant accent. For the first time, Elynin could understand his words directly. She felt a kind of relief in her chest, as if she could suddenly breathe a lot easier. Her eyes began watering. She did not get why this meant so much to her, but it did. Perhaps it was the fact that Eywa had responded to her prayers. Or perhaps it was simply due to this human choosing to visit her and choosing to support her.

Charlie was intensely studying the piece of paper, and did not notice Elynin starting to cry. He continued. " _They allow me…to visit you…many times_ ". When he finally looked up, he was somewhat startled, thinking momentarily that he might have said something wrong.

He moved his wheelchair closer so that he could touch the transparent inner hatch. When he put his hand on the barrier, Elynin immediately moved to do the same. Her hand was large enough to envelope his. He could swear he felt some warmth coming through the plastic. If only the barrier wasn't there.

" _Sorry… for this… for all of this_ " he said, trying to look at Elynin and not at the paper as he said it. " _Future… will be… better._ "

Elynin now leaned her face against the barrier and closed her eyes. " _Your presence allows me to dream again. Please speak some more._ " she said softly. Charlie didn't fully understand what she had just said, although he thought he recognized some of the words. He proceeded to say everything he had written down, no matter if it was relevant or not, or if he could pronounce it properly. Elynin did not seem to mind any of it.


	13. The warning

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

 **Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free text. Also, if there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 13: The warning**

The Avuneyra clan was in turmoil. News had reached them that the Sky People had returned in large numbers, that they now controlled the power of the sun, and that there had been a disagreement between Toruk Makto and his deputies. War appeared to be imminent as the inter-clan leader of the north, Ne'swonimh, was calling on all clans, even those of the south, to join him.

Olo'eyktan Mayran had done everything he could to organize his warriors and spread the word of the Sky People's return. However, he had done this because Toruk Makto had asked him personally to do so. After he had learned what had happened when their leader had gone to meet with the Sky People's leader, he wasn't quite so sure any more about what he had to do.

Mayran belonged to the oldest generation of still living Na'vi, and he was firmly rooted in traditional beliefs. This news had upset him greatly. It had taken him many years to come to terms with the fact that a Sky Person like Jake Sully could have been chosen by Eywa to become Toruk Makto. And now all these new events had happened in rapid succession. People were now talking about following either one of these so-called inter-clan leaders, who had come into power via a most unusual and alien process.

" _This insanity must come to an end._ " Mayran suddenly blurted out to no-one in particular. After snapping out of his thoughts, he found himself standing near the edge of a wooden platform, looking out over the maze of roots and tree branches, which made up their village. Only a fellow elder, Onorak, was close enough to have heard his words.

" _Well said, but do you have any idea how?_ " Onorak asked, slightly out of breath, after he had carefully climbed onto the wooden platform from a lower tree branch.

" _We will start by siding with Toruk Makto, meaning we will remain neutral in the coming conflict._ " Mayran answered solemnly. " _Then we will see how all of this plays out._ "

Mayran noticed an argument taking place in one of the hollowed out knots a short distance away. A dozen hunters or more had gathered there, and they appeared to be in disagreement. This was far from the only discussion that was taking place in the village, but due to the noteworthy volume, Mayran decided to focus on them first.

He turned to Onorak. " _Would you mind calling them here at once?_ " he asked. Onorak gave a nod in reply, and proceeded to climb down from the wooden platform onto the nearest pathway.

Mayran could see that his trusted advisor and messenger was a little shaky on his legs, as he made his way to the group of hunters. It was not due to fear, this he knew for sure. It was yet another reminder that their generation would be here for only a short while longer before finally joining Eywa.

Soon, the group of hunters joined Mayran. All of them seemed to be grinning, except for one.

" _Explain yourselves. What has been going on that makes you look so smug?_ " Mayran barked at them.

" _If I may, Olo'eyktan… I can tell you exactly what happened._ " one of the younger hunters said. It was the one who hadn't looked amused. Mayran recalled his name being Tsa'kan. He was the brother of the exiled seeress Elynin. Realizing this, Mayran became reluctant to allow Tsa'kan to speak, but after a short silence, he gave him a quick nod nonetheless.

" _Just now, I explained that I had returned empty-handed from hunting the Sky People who abducted my sister. Just now, when I asked for other brave hunters to join me in my quest to get her back, this group of wimps started laughing._ " Tsa'kan explained in a loud voice, sounding quite agitated. Some of them actually started laughing again.

" _Silence, all of you._ " Mayran interjected bluntly. " _You are hurting my ears with your shouting._ "

Tsa'kan looked offended, but kept silent. Mayran sighed, before speaking. " _Tsa'kan, has it ever occurred to you that no-one sees your sister as a member of this clan anymore? You do know what it means to exile someone? And you do recall there was a good reason?_ "

" _Yes, Olo'eyktan._ ", Tsa'kan answered grudgingly. " _But she is still Na'vi. Does this mean nothing to any of you?_ " As he spoke the last sentence, he turned to face the group of hunters.

An older female hunter then spoke. "S _he is still Na'vi even if she is exiled. That is not what we were laughing about. We were laughing because of that crazy plan of his."_ She turned to face Mayran. _"He wants to sneak inside the Sky People's main base, and insists that we will figure out what to do when we get there. And then he wonders why no-one is enthusiastic about it._ "

Tsa'kan didn't agree with her. " _So you want to have a detailed plan? Can any of you predict how the Sky People will react? Does anyone know how they think? It is pointless to come up with a detailed plan for something like this._ "

Mayran interjected again. " _The fact that no-one can predict what the Sky People will do next is what worries me above all. Therefore we should not even think of attempting something like this. News tells me the Sky People now control the light of the sun. Even if by some miracle you manage to free your sister, if they find out it was the Avuneyra clan who organized that incursion, what is stopping them from burning our village and our people?_ "

Everyone remained quiet. Mayran nodded calmly before continuing. " _I do not want to hear any more words about this. We shall not get involved with the Sky People. We shall neither help them, nor fight them. We shall side with Toruk Makto, and wait until he has decided what to do next. I want all of you to spread this message to our whole clan. Go on._ " He promptly made a little wave with his hand, dismissing them.

As the hunters started leaving, Tsa'kan turned away from the group and went into whatever direction was opposite to theirs. As he was walking, he ran his hands through his hair multiple times, appearing to have some difficulty accepting that nobody was going to join the rescue party for Elynin.

When he came to a halt, Onorak, who had followed him at a distance, now approached carefully. " _I would have defended your plan, but I could not think of any good counter arguments. After all, how can we justify risking the whole clan for Elynin's sake?_ "

Tsa'kan faced him, and appeared to be desperately holding back tears. " _It is just not fair. I still do not believe it was her fault. She made some large mistakes. And she had her own ideas. Is that really enough to exile someone?_ "

Onorak put a hand on his shoulder as he tried to reassure him. " _I do not think her exile played a significant role in this decision. Imagine if you would have been captured instead. Do you think your brother Namuk could have convinced our clan to rescue you, knowing the Sky People could retaliate with the power of the sun? It would have resulted in a slightly different discussion, but the same decision in the end._ "

Tsa'kan remained silent for a moment, trying to convince himself that Onorak was right. As he was processing the wise words of his friend and mentor, he realized something. No doubt had this thought already occurred to many others after hearing the news about the Sky People's new power. Still, he felt the need to ask the questions out loud. " _How are we ever going to drive them away from our home if they control the sun? How does one fight the sun?_ "

The old Na'vi said nothing in reply. His face appeared sad, as if he had already resigned himself to the impossibility of ever stopping the Sky People.

" _Night._ " Tsa'kan suddenly whispered optimistically, in a moment of realization. " _The sun does not shine at night._ "

" _Nor does it shine underground, or deep in the oceans._ " Onorak added, managing to turn his own defeated facial expression into one of wary hope.

* * *

Just like nine years ago, when the Na'vi clans had gathered to defeat the humans of the RDA, some of them were now gathering to stop the Tempest. The main objective was to stop the humans from rebuilding and strengthening their foothold on their world. Unlike last time, however, the Na'vi were not being led by Toruk Makto. Jake Sully had gone home to his own clan, the Omaticaya. Instead, the group was being nominally led by Ne'swonimh, the inter-clan leader from the north.

After the meeting with the humans, Ne'swonimh had expressly forbidden all clans siding with him from gathering a large amount of warriors in one area. Unfortunately, some of the warriors had mistaken this statement for a reluctance to strike hard and swiftly at the humans. They presumed that although Ne'swonimh had every intension to fight the humans until they would be driven away, he was being unnecessarily cautious and not decisive enough. Therefore they believed it necessary to take immediate action themselves.

Selyat had learned of this gathering army and its motivation from Siem'yethiu's southern associates. Though she had no intension of working together with the humans, like Siem'yethiu intended to do, she nevertheless understood that attacking them head on was a bad idea. This was especially clear to her, since she had survived her first encounter with them in the floating mountains, and because she had witnessed them retaking their former base by force.

To top it off, Selyat had also experienced the blinding flash of white light. When Siem'yethiu's associates had explained to her what had been the cause of it, she had immediately known that any Na'vi army out in the open could be taken out with terrifying ease.

She had gladly accepted a section of one of the golden sheets from them, which had been gifted to Siem'yethiu by the humans. She figured it would be better spent in her hands anyway, since she actually planned to use it for something worth it: working against the humans instead of helping them.

She was therefore in theory siding with Ne'swonimh when she had decided to try and convince the gathering army to disperse. In reality, however, there was only one side that mattered to her: all Na'vi.

It was not hard to locate them, since they weren't making much effort to hide themselves. Selyat arrived via ikran. A small group of warriors near the outskirts took notice of her strange appearance when she dismounted. Her rider's mask, which normally had transparent bluish pieces for protecting the eyes from the wind, had been modified. The eye covers were now much larger, and golden. Also noteworthy was the woven cloth hood she was wearing, covering her head, neck, and her shoulders. Lastly, she was carrying an old-fashioned shield, of the kind which was almost never used anymore for warfare.

Even before she had the chance to speak, some warriors started snickering. One of them, who was sitting on a small rock, spit out something he was chewing on, before turning around to get a better look at her.

" _What… who is this, some distant outlander?_ " he asked in a quasi-serious tone, while eying his fellow warriors. They all tried but mostly failed to stifle their laughter.

" _Wait, I think she is from that maverick clan who only like sun and sand._ " another one suggested.

" _How could that be, you moron?"_ the first one answered haughtily. _"If she likes the sun, why is she hiding from it?_ "

Selyat approached them confidently, and then flipped up her rider's mask. Her angry face was twitching slightly. She looked ready to beat them all up.

" _Selyat?!_ " the warrior then called out, before he and the rest burst into unrestrained laughter. As he was laughing, he did not pay attention to Selyat approaching him. Before he could react to this, he received a bash to the face from her shield. The force of the blow sent him falling backwards from the rock he was sitting on, onto the jungle floor.

" _Nice to see you too, Makaro._ " Selyat said in tranquil fury, before addressing the others. " _Seen enough, or do you want some as well?_ "

There was a brief murmur coming from the small group as its members recoiled and reached for their weapons. Several instances of " _seen enough_ " could be heard.

" _Can we stop this nonsense? What are you idiots doing out here? Are you tired of life?!_ " Selyat erupted without warning. " _Do you really think the Sky People cannot see you gathering here?_ "

Makaro managed to scramble to his feet, using the rock as a support. His lip was bleeding. He cursed under his breath for a moment, before turning to Selyat. " _Girl, are you crazy? Why do you hit so hard?_ "

" _Call me 'girl' again, and I will hit even harder._ " Selyat said calmly, but unflinchingly.

Makaro spit out some blood before coming up with an explanation. " _We know about their sun weapon. But we are below a thick green canopy of leaves. See?_ " He said, as he raised his arms to point out the protection.

Selyat slowly shook her head. " _Get out of here while you can. I am not going to repeat it. Do you think I like to dress up like this for no reason? You have no idea what will happen if you stay._ "

* * *

At Hell's Gate, almost all high ranking members of the Tempest had gathered. They were in a grey conference room with windows providing a distant view of the Pandoran jungle. Seated at the conference table were Oswald Torr, Jean Babatunde, Natalya Vassileva, dr. Basileus Nitschke, dr. Manisha Singh, Charles Hirschel, and all their respective adjutants. All were dressed in grey, brown or beige military uniforms.

Wilhelmus was slowly pacing up and down the room with his arms behind his back. At the conference table, there were also two screens, one showing Rodolfo Barros, the other showing someone with a face-obscuring, beaked black helmet with a Tempest logo covering the forehead.

There were multiple discussions taking place at once. Some of the high ranking officers were arguing. Most adjutants were making notes. Oswald Torr was helping himself to a portion of what was left of the lunch they had had an hour ago.

In the middle of it all like a fish out of the water was Yijun Liao, newly appointed adjutant under SD supreme group leader Vassileva. The latter was sitting to her right. Directly to her left was Deputy Leader Torr, who had not paid a second of attention to her since the conference had started. She could probably fit three times into his body volume, and found his table manners a bit scary.

The fact that he was eating almost constantly, or the unrefined manner in which he did so, weren't necessarily what made her nervous. It had more to do with how blatant and over the top it was. She refused to believe that anyone could be like this and not realize it themselves. It was almost like he was doing it on purpose, to somehow mislead people. Suddenly, her train of thought was interrupted by Wilhelmus clapping his hands together multiple times.

"This is leading nowhere. I insist that we go over this again. Jean, if you would be so kind?" Wilhelmus said to the group, his focus eventually settling on Babatunde.

"Alright." Babatunde said after briefly clearing his throat with a cough. "Our orbital scans indicate that a group of Na'vi warriors started massing several days ago. Their assembly point is about thirty klicks away from our main base. Estimates on the number of warriors range from two hundred to four hundred. Their numbers are increasing, but not at a high pace. Our drones found no indication that the traitor Jake Sully is among them, therefore making it unclear who is leading them. Also unknown is their motivation. We are here to decide what to do about it."

The first one to respond was Hirschel. "I said this before, and I will say it again: they are savages. They don't have a motivation other than wanting to see blood. No, let me finish."

Dr. Singh was about to interrupt him, but he didn't let her. He raised a finger at her and then raised his voice slightly as he continued. "We have constructed a magnificent weapon to deal with these kinds of situations. They must learn the hard way that there is a penalty for such behavior. Otherwise this bloodlust will never stop."

The next opportunity she got, Dr. Singh took over. "We have no evidence which suggests they are planning to attack us. These Na'vi could also belong to a grand hunting party. There is evidence for this happening in the past. And in any case, their numbers are not sufficient to penetrate the defenses of our base in the unlikely event that they would come here."

"Indeed." Dr. Nitschke agreed with her. "I think Vassileva's troops are more than capable of dealing with them if they do show up on our doorstep."

"Have no worries, my dear doctors." Vassileva said. "My troops shall have no difficulty at all to defend this fortress. In fact… it would not even be a challenge for them."

One of the screens, the one showing Barros, now started talking. "Unfortunately, troops don't grow on trees. We cannot afford to needlessly risk our soldiers just because they'd like a challenge. Someone has to pay to get new reinforcements from light years away if they are killed or maimed."

"What kind of a man are you?" Vassileva interjected. "You are supposed to be the civilian governor of Pandora, yet you are the only one of us who has not set foot on the planet yet."

She then put a hand on the shoulder of Yijun. "This woman has bigger balls than you will ever have. Don't let me ever see you down here, or I will personally make sure you are thrown over the…"

"What is this?!" Wilhelmus suddenly roared, making some of the people in the room jump. "Leave these petty differences out of this, or leave the meeting!"

After this outburst, no-one dared to say anything for a few seconds.

"Jean, what do you think? Honest opinion." Wilhelmus then asked Babatunde, sounding somewhat calmed down.

"I would say fry them. Declare the area a free-fire zone. And then cook the bastards." Babatunde answered quite nonchalantly.

Someone who hadn't said a word before was now triggered. "I agree. Sounds delicious." Oswald said, sounding unfittingly cheerful, and completely detached from the whole situation and its implications. Most people in the room couldn't help but interpret it as a joke, though no-one dared to laugh out loud.

Wilhelmus had heard enough, and decided to formulate the final decision. "Alright then. It seems to me we have to remind these Na'vi that we mean what we say. It is pointless to risk our troops in a conventional attack. And to bomb them… well…that would be ungrounded, not to mention a tactical waste of ammunition. They must learn something, so wiping them out is not the goal here. We shall use the Star Gun to confuse and injure them, so that they will disperse. This is my decision."

He then addressed the second screen showing the person with the black helmet. "Chief gunner, please advise. We wish to shoot once to injure. Can this be done reliably in the current circumstances?"

"It can be done, my Leader." the chief gunner answered immediately. It seemed he had expected this question. "Do we wish to permanently incapacitate them?"

"No… no, just give them a decent sunburn and maybe some blisters." Wilhelmus insisted warily. "Proceed using the current coordinates. Fire when ready."

"As you wish, my Leader." the chief gunner answered in a neutral voice. He promptly turned away from the camera and began commanding his crew.

Several anxious minutes passed, where most people in the conference room refrained from talking. Vassileva continued to criticize Barros out loud, while the latter had already left the video session. Babatunde went to stand by Wilhelmus' side to silently look out of the windows in expectation. The former had arranged for this specific room to be used, knowing that if the decision would be made to fire the Star Gun, they would be able to see it from here.

The chief gunner suddenly addressed Wilhelmus. "My Leader, the interval has been set to three seconds. The warning signal has been sent. Please take the necessary precautions."

Next, the air raid siren of the base started wailing. Babatunde pressed a button on the room console so that the windows darkened.

At last, the chief gunner gave the final order. "Command is go. Commence sequence. Align primary mirror."

All sound seemed to be drained from the conference room. It took several seconds for the bright white beam to appear. Everyone looked out of the windows in the hopes of catching a glimpse of it.

* * *

Selyat was heading over to yet another group of warriors when the day turned into an inferno. It all happened very fast and without any prior indication. Beforehand, there had been no sounds that warned of what was going to take place. When it happened, it was as if the sky caught fire, after which the agony immediately rained down upon them. The sounds of what seemed to be hundreds of screams were a testament to the horror which was taking place.

She felt her arms burn intensely. It was like having a hot coal pressed against the skin, only over a large area. Almost instinctively, she crouched, and held up her shield over her body to protect herself. There wasn't much to protect herself from at this point, since the light disappeared as quickly as it had manifested.

Even after the light had been gone for several seconds, she was scared to lower her shield, thinking it might come back again. This fear soon disappeared from her mind as she noticed all the screaming and wailing around her. She now feared what she would see if she lowered her shield. First, she flipped up her rider's mask, before finally peeking past the shield.

The canopy of leaves above them had turned brown and black, and was still smoking. There were a lot more holes in it than before. On the ground, some Na'vi warriors were stumbling around; others were standing still, sitting or kneeling, trying to comprehend what had happened. A few were lying on the ground, writhing in agony. Most of their skins looked reddish, mixed with mismatched patches of regular blue.

Selyat inspected her own arms. They also appeared red and blue. Right now, they did not hurt as much as she had expected; likely it was the shock of the event which numbed the feeling.

Her first thought about what she could do to help, was to find water. She yelled at the group, telling them to head to the nearest stream. She would help to locate it.

After she noticed little change in their behavior, she quickly realized that most of them had been blinded. Whether this was temporary or not, they would not be able to follow her anywhere in this state.

She groaned to herself as the scope of the problem became clear to her. " _Which one of you can still see?!_ " she yelled, the despair in her voice clearly audible. " _Tell me. Anyone?!_ "

Some, who were not too far away, responded that they could, and she immediately went over to instruct them. She told them to organize the blinded into groups and get them to hold each other's shoulders, hands, or waists. The ones who could still see were to take positions at the head of these groups, and wait until she had located the nearest stream of water, before leading them there.

All of this felt somewhat unreal to Selyat. As she was searching, a feeling of apocalypse came over her. Whatever the established order of things had once been, it felt like it had been overturned. Whereas just minutes earlier, she had been the oddball, now she was the only one who was in any reasonable physical condition to help them survive this. Though she had feared something like this would happen, it was another thing to actually experience it firsthand.

Soon, she had found a stream, and managed to make its direction clear to those leading the blinded. As the group was slowly moving by, making its way towards it, she spotted Makaro among them. He was near enough for her to see the extent of his wounds. His face seemed to be particularly badly burned, as it had even blistered. He had his eyes open, but they were discolored and cloudy, and did not appear to focus on anything in particular.

As he passed by, being unable to notice that she was staring at him, Selyat was momentarily overcome by the situation. She separated herself from the group, walked for a time, and suddenly bent down to start vomiting. This went on for a while until even after her stomach was as good as empty.

She finally sat up straight, still panting, covered in sweat, her arms and parts of her legs now starting to hurt badly. After she briefly looked at the clear blue sky, she rearranged her hood and flipped down her rider's mask. It was only a matter of time before it would happen again. As long as the sun shone, the inferno could come unannounced at any time or place. She wondered if she could ever enjoy the tranquil daylight again.


End file.
